A small-boat basin, just N of the main basin, had a controlling depth of 3 feet in 2011. The breakwater on the W side of the small-boat basin is marked by a light at the S end.
Navigation:
Kawaihae Light (20°02’29″N., 155°49’58″W.), 59 feet above the water, is shown from a 34-foot white pyramidal concrete tower on the NW side of Kawaihae. Deep and heavily wooded Honokoa Gulch is NW of the harbor, and Pu’ukoholā Heiau is a square of dark rocks on a 50-foot knoll SE of the breakwater. Puu Kamalii 1 mile NE of Kawaihae, is 690 feet high and fairly conspicuous.
The basin is protected by stone revetment and fill on the S and by a breakwater, marked by lights, on the W. The entrance channel is marked by a 120° lighted range, lighted and unlighted buoys.
A safety zone is in Kawaihae Harbor, adjacent to the commercial piers.