As they struggled against choppy waves off the coast of a Hawaiian island, Elizabeth “Bette” Webster and Alexander Burckle made an alarming observation: Their boat was getting farther away.

The couple, who were on their honeymoon in September 2021, were supposed to return to the catamaran to continue a chartered snorkeling tour around the island of Lanai.

Instead, the boat left and abandoned Webster and Burckle in the open ocean a half-mile from shore, they alleged in a lawsuit filed Feb. 21 against Sail Maui, the tour company.

The couple feared for their lives, according the suit, as they battled the surf and swam to Lanai, where they were eventually rescued.

Jared Washkowitz, an attorney representing the couple, said they were lucky to be alive.

“If it wasn’t a couple that was young and fit, they probably would have drowned,” Washkowitz said.

Sail Maui President Don Prestage declined to comment.

Webster and Burckle, both experienced snorkelers, were visiting Maui when they purchased tickets for Sail Maui’s “Lanai Coast” snorkel tour, according to the lawsuit. They boarded a large catamaran along with 42 other snorkelers on the morning of the tour. A captain told them they’d sail toward the nearby island of Lanai and stop at several snorkeling spots once there.

Everything seemed normal as they approached the first snorkeling site, said Jess Hebert, another tourist who was on the boat with her family. Around 10:40 a.m., the boat moored off the shore of an abandoned resort, the lawsuit states. The captain told the tour group they’d have one hour to snorkel before the next stop.

Hebert, also an experienced swimmer, said she, Webster and Burckle swam out the farthest from the boat. She recalled waving to them but later got separated as she searched for coral reef and fish. When Hebert clambered back onto the boat, she said, she told the crew that Webster and Burckle had swam past her and asked whether they were aboard. The crew said they were and then performed a head count, she said.

But Webster and Burckle were still in the water, struggling to make it back to the boat as conditions turned choppier, the lawsuit says. They swam for 30 minutes and made little progress, then began signaling and yelling for help, according to the lawsuit.

The crew didn’t notice, the suit alleged – the catamaran headed toward the next snorkeling site, leaving the couple in its wake.

“If we looked behind us , probably would have seen Bette and her husband,” Hebert said. “Everything seemed totally normal. … I had no idea.”

Webster and Burckle continued swimming toward the boat into deeper water before realizing their predicament, according to the lawsuit. They panicked, buffeted by a rolling surf that swelled between 6 and 8 feet high and obscured view of the shore.

“The conditions were getting worse as they were out there,” Washkowitz said. “They’re lucky to get back.”

The couple had no choice but to swim to Lanai, reaching land at an unoccupied beach around 1 p.m. They had been snorkeling and swimming for over two hours. Fatigued and dehydrated, Webster wrote “help” and “SOS” in the sand, according to the lawsuit. They waved their snorkeling fins and palm leaves at a passing boat, to no avail.

Eventually, two Lanai residents happened upon the couple and helped them return to Maui on an afternoon ferry. They used a borrowed cellphone to call Sail Maui – which still hadn’t realized they were missing, Washkowitz said.

The next day, Webster and Burckle ran into Hebert at a shopping mall on Maui, Hebert said. Webster recognized Hebert from the tour, introduced herself and told their tale. Then she burst into tears.

“They felt like they were going to die,” Hebert said of the couple’s retelling of their ordeal. “They were so scared.”

Webster and Burckle’s lawsuit alleges that Sail Maui and the tour group’s captain acted negligently in failing to perform a proper head count before leaving the first snorkel site. The boat’s first mate conducted three head counts as the crew gathered the snorkelers before leaving but did not ask people to sit down or remain still as he counted, the suit says. Hebert said that while the crew counted, people on the tour were milling around the catamaran.

Webster and Burckle stayed in Hawaii for three more days before returning home to California, according to the lawsuit. Hebert said that Webster called her in January to catch up and said she’s beginning to feel better, but the memory of floating in the open sea is still haunts her.

“It kind of ruined the honeymoon,” Washkowitz said.