Nightmare in Hawaii: A couple goes snorkeling – then their excursion boat suddenly leaves

California’s Alexander Burkle and Elizabeth Webster are so incensed — that they’ve started a tour company in Hawaii Sue five million dollars for negligence and emotional distress. In September 2021, the couple spent honeymoon in the island chain. During the snorkeling trip, a team from the Maui Sailing Company released them into the sea. Thanks to their extraordinary swimming abilities, the two did not drown.

As reported by NBC, Webster and her husband, Alexander, have booked a trip to Lanai, a small island near Maui. According to court records, the two left the port of Lahaina on a boat with 42 other people around 10 am. Everyone was supposed to be back by 3pm.

The sea grew restless

During the voyage to the Lanai, the ship’s captain informed the passengers that the boat would stay in one place for about an hour before moving on to another. Webster and Burkle now state in their lawsuit that the captain did not give a specific time for everyone to be back on board.

At 10:50 in the morning all 44 people went to the water. Burckles, both experienced snorkelers who had been to Maui before, swam north as directed by the ship’s crew. At exactly 11:50 am, the couple returned to the boat. At this point, the water was choppy, and the two continued swimming in the direction the boat was heading for about 15 minutes, but that was gone.

The boat has disappeared

The lawsuit describes how the newlyweds swam desperately toward the ship in the process The sea is more worried had become. “At about 12:20 p.m., after another 15 minutes of continuous swimming, the ship was a long way from the last time prosecutors had examined it,” the document says.

The two tried to stay afloat and give distress signals. They panicked and struggled “to swim in the sea conditions, for fear of drowning”.

The provider did not notice that they were missing

Burkells finally realizes that the ship’s crew may have forgotten them. Her only chance of survival was to swim to shore on the Lanai. But they were very afraid because they had been warned before the voyage that there was a shallow coral reef off the coast.

However, they reached the island around one o’clock in the afternoon. “They were exhausted and dehydrated,” the suit says. The woman tried to draw attention to herself with signs of distress, but no boat came to their rescue. The two could only be rescued when the locals found them, giving them water and allowing them to use their phones.

After Elizabeth Webster and her husband were rescued, the woman called the operator Maui Sail. There, the staff stated that they did not notice someone on the tour missing.

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