Loading ...The company is ‘Lava Boat Tours’ and they have been operating for several years. Two big aluminum catamaran type boats with a pair of big 120hp Mercury motors, broad decks and lots of seating. They got permits to enter the restricted area near the lava entry. Regular boaters are prohibited.
They operated out of Pohoiki boat launch to take tours out west of Kalapana where the OLD lava flow used to enter the ocean. That flow dried up last year with no ocean entry, so the boat company has been dormant for months. Now that feed crater has collapsed entirely and they are recutting the road across the old flow. Pohoiki boat ramp is closed now, near the current flow.
So the Lava Boat tours are operating out of Hilo harbor and taking a 30-40 mile trip south around the Cape to get to the current ocean entry. They are fully permitted and quite good. USGS scientists sometime go along to document the flow status also.