Napali Sunset Sail, Captain Andy's Sailing

It is not often at all that I go on a tour and am completely and utterly impressed with the experience that I have. Today, when I went on the sunset sail with Captain Andy’s Charters up the Napali Coast, was one of those days. The weather, the service of the crew, and itinerary of the trip were all flaw less.

We started out at the harbor in Port Allen where we checked in at the Captain Andy’s store. After the group was gathered, we proceeded to make our way down to the pier where Captain Andy's luxurious “Gold Coast” catamaran awaited us. We took our shoes off and put them in the rack before boarding the boat and making our way into the cabin for the safety briefing.

After the briefing was over the crew untied us from the pier and we were off. Our journey began by touring the coastline of the west side of Kauai. As we passed the town of Waimea and continued towards the far west town of Kekaha, we enjoyed the views of the rolling hills that at one time were all covered with sugar cane.

Once we got to Kekaha, the coastline turned to sand. This stretch of sand continued, uninterrupted for 17 miles. The beach stretched from Kekaha, all the way to the far western end of Polihale State Park. Here, the 100+ foot tall sand dunes of Polihale were completely dwarfed by the cliffs of Napali that put their foot in the ocean, and extend upwards to over 3000 feet into the sky.

As we were in sheer amazement of the spectacle of the cliffs that were hanging over our heads, some friendly creatures decided to pay us a visit. At first we saw one jump in the distance, then another one came and swam up right near the boat. All of a sudden with a giant spout of water a humpback whale surfaced next to our boat. After swimming near us for about 30 seconds the whale showed us its tail before it dove down into the depths, never to be seen again.

After our whale sighting we continued up the coast admiring the cliffs, hidden beaches, and lush tropical valleys that we passed by. We continued up the coastline until we reached the mouth of the Kalalau Valley. After admiring the enormous beach and waterfall here we turned around and made a course due south, back towards the harbor, and out away from the cliffs.

Once we turned around the ride of the boat smoothed out immensely and the crew was able to set up our buffet dinner (which tasted incredible). Remember earlier, when I said that we had amazing cooperation from the weather? We had literally one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. I even got a picture of the elusive “Green Flash”. Drinking cocktails and watching the sunset was an amazing finale to an already amazing evening out on the boat with Captain Andy’s.