Hayward couple sues tour boat company that left them stranded in the ocean

HAYWARD, Calif. – A Hayward few states they have been remaining stranded in the ocean although snorkeling on their honeymoon. It took place in Maui about 18 months in the past, and now they’ve filed a $5 million lawsuit versus the tour boat corporation.  

The attorney states it was a fairly terrifying predicament for the newlyweds who understood that they’d been remaining guiding. They survived, but the legal professional suggests the pair believes their life ended up set in risk.  

“Once they realized the boat experienced left them, they have been obviously distraught and upset, and they experienced no selection except to swim to the nearest land mass which was Lana’i,” said attorney Jared Waskowitz, of JAW Legal in Hawaii. 

Waskowitz says what must have been a great expertise in Maui, turned into a nightmare for his clientele Elizabeth Webster and Alexander Burckle. 

While on their honeymoon in September 2021, the couple acquired snorkeling tickets with Sail Maui. Following about an hour in the water, they recognized the boat was sailing away as they tried out to swim in direction of it.  

“There were no other boats in the place. All they could consider to do was swim to the closest land mass, so they did. It was shallow, but there were being waves. They came up on the beach there, Lana’i. It’s variety of an abandoned beach front. It’s not quite populated. No one was on the beach front,” Waskowitz mentioned. 

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Their lawyer states once they attained Lana’i, they wrote S-O-S in the sand and waited. Fortuitously, a nearby couple viewing the seashore that working day helped them contact the tour boat enterprise.  

“A single of the surprising factors is that the vessel didn’t even know they ended up lacking right up until that mobile phone contact,” Waskowitz claimed.  

Webster and Burckle have submitted a $5 million lawsuit against Sail Maui for carelessness. 

Waskowitz states they had to swim a 50 % mile to get back on land and if they did not know how to swim, the circumstance could have ended a lot even worse.  

“It’s not like it was their initially time in the water, but I wouldn’t say they experienced that sort of open ocean swimming encounter, particularly at that location. Apparently, they had been in condition enough and could do ample to not drown,” Waskowitz mentioned.    

Waskowitz suggests the business did refund the couple’s income and assisted them in having back again to Maui.  

KTVU reached out to the tour boat firm but did not hear again from them in time for this report.