by NBC, the pair was part of a 44-passenger group that set sail from Lahaina Harbor at 10am for the tour and was scheduled to return to at around 3pm.
At one point, the waters became increasingly turbulent and the couple attempted to swim towards the boat. However, after around 15 minutes of swimming, the pair discovered that they “still had not made progress towards the boat”. “It was just too disorganized. Everybody kept moving, so they easily got missed,” Jessica Hebert, a Louisiana resident who was also on the tour,“Our facts show that they did a headcount, came up two short, then they did another headcount, came up two short,” Washkowitz told Insider. According to Washkowitz, the crew reportedly counted the total number of guests during the third headcount and proceeded to head to the second location.