A California couple honeymooning in Hawaii said a snorkeling tour group abandoned them in the ocean for more than an hour, ultimately forcing them to swim to shore.
Elizabeth Webster and her husband Alexander Burckle detailed the terrifying Sept. 23, 2021 ordeal in a federal lawsuit filed last month. The couple was among 44 passengers embarking from Lahaina Harbor at 10 a.m. for Sail Maui’s Lanai Coast snorkel tour, the suit stated.
The group was scheduled to return to the harbor around 3 p.m.
The couple said in the lawsuit that the captain informed everyone that the boat would remain anchored in the location for about an hour before moving on to a second location. Webster and Burckle said that the captain did not give a specific time everyone should be back on the boat.
All 44 passengers entered the water around 10:50 a.m. Burckle and his wife, both experienced snorkelers who had been to Maui several times, swam north as the captain instructed.
Throughout the excursion, passengers returned to the boat at different times, the lawsuit said.
Around 11:50 a.m., Burckle and Webster started to make their way back to the boat. The lawsuit said that the water had started to get choppy and after about 15 minutes of swimming the couple realized they “still had not made progress towards the boat.”
“The water was choppy and Plaintiffs started swimming more aggressively towards the Vessel,” the suit stated. “At approximately 12:20 p.m., after another 15 minutes (approx.) of aggressive swimming, the Vessel was clearly farther from Plaintiffs than it was at the last time they had checked.”
The couple signaled that they were in distress and called for help in the direction of the boat to no avail. The vessel then moved on to its second location.
Burckle and his wife tried to swim in the direction the boat was moving but the water was getting deeper, according to the lawsuit. They began to panic as they struggled “to swim in the ocean conditions,” it said.
The couple, about half a…
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