Eleven years ago, a huge cruise ship dropped anchor in Kaua'i's beautiful Hanalei Bay. In September 1996, the Seaborne Pride just showed up on Kaua'i's North Shore without much fanfare. Small boats ferried passengers from the big white cruise ship to shore.

Eyes popped, mouths drop-ped, people were apoplectic.

This after years and years and YEARS of angry demonstrations and clashes, political battles and court fights over commercial tour boats in the Hanalei estuary. Fights over little boats — Zodiacs and stuff. And here's this 440-foot cruise ship, sitting out there like, "Yeah? What?"

Just a month earlier, a federal judge had ruled that the County of Kaua'i did indeed have the authority to regulate boating in the Hanalei River area. Before that, it was a free-for-all, with oily rainbows spreading on the water, gas smells filling the air, boat motors chewing through the wakes of swimmers and tour operators making money hand-over-fist taking tourists out to Kaua'i's "unspoiled" north coast.

After the court ruling, the county issued permits to six tour boat companies. However, the company shuttling the passengers of the Seaborne Pride cruise ship from Hanalei Bay to the boatyard was not one of the permitted companies.

Apparently when the state's boating division handed the Seaborne Pride a permit to park in Hanalei Bay, nobody bothered to mention the county's permit system. Or the fact that, in light of the decadelong battle, the small community might not take kindly to a giant cruise ship parking in the bay.

All these years later, it's a different governor, there are all different names in the organizational chart of state bureaucracy, it's a different (smaller) ship but it is the same pain, the same distrust.

When people made signs, jumped in Nawiliwili Bay and shouted their frustration at the Lihu'e Convention Center, there was some of that history fueling the fight. The Seaborne Pride incident proved that the folks stamping plans and giving out permits in an air-conditioned Honolulu office might not have the best interests of a Neighbor Island rural community in mind.

Not that it was the flash point or the war cry that had Kaua'i protectionists saying, "Never again!" It was only one of many things, but it was so weird and ostentatious.

The Seaborne Pride never came back. In a 2007 report to the DLNR on ocean recreation user conflicts, the section on Hanalei included a paragraph that read:

"Hanalei Focus Group participants were concerned about the threat of cruise ships entering or mooring in the bay. DLNR staff at the meeting assured them that this will not be occurring."

Eleven years, and people are still asking just to make sure, because you never know when somebody in Honolulu will hand out a permit and say, "Aw, OK, go for it!"

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.