We visited Pelekane Bay six days after the heavy rain event on March 14, 2026, part of the Kona Low Storm of 2026. It now has a new beach—a baymouth bar, to be exact—that formed at the mouth of the bay shortly after the floodwaters carried sediment and sand there. Days went by, but it is still present. This might be the first time since the harbor’s completion that a beach has formed there.
I was surprised to see it so far out. I had to laugh when I realized that my prediction—that one day Pelekana Bay would be completely filled in with land, with a new beach forming at its mouth—was coming true. Sediment from runoff has gradually filled it in. Within the decade, there were major flash floods and sediment runoffs: August 2015, April 2017, October 2022, May 2024, and March 2026, which drastically altered the bay.
The flash flood on May 10, 2024, destroyed the road leading to the Small Boat Harbor South. The recent flood widened the damaged area and washed even more material out to sea. The entire harbor is an artificial peninsula formed when the harbor was dredged. The reef was crushed to create land. The water carried the reef’s remains back into the ocean. It wanted its ancestors’ bones returned.
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