THE LATE EIGHT

AFTER THEY MISSED THEIR CRUISE'S ALL-ABOARD TIME, A GROUP OF PASSENGERS WAS STRANDED ON A REMOTE ISLAND IN AFRICA. THAT WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

- BRIDGET READ

THEY WERE GOING TO BE LATE - that much became clear as clouds gathered over São Tomé, a verdant island 190 miles off the coast of West Africa. The group of eight-six Americans and two Australians had left its Norwegian Cruise Line ship that morning, March 27, for a day trip across the island. But they had car trouble on the way back. Time ticked by as they sat in the tropical heat waiting for a replacement car. "Call your boss," the passengers urged their driver. "Tell him to call the ship."

When they arrived back at port, an hour late for their all-aboard time, they were relieved to see that their ship, the 2,290-passenger Dawn, was still there, a white rectangle anchored offshore. Now, all they had to do was reach it. The group didn't speak Portuguese, the official language on São Tomé. But the sight of eight white people in shorts and backpacks panicking at the pier didn't need much translation. A local called the port agent, and when he got there, Jay Campbell - a spry, bearded retiree in a baseball cap from South Carolina began pressing him to contact the captain. "They need to come get us," Jay insisted.

But no one could reach the ship on the radio, not the port agent or the São Tomé and Príncipe Coast Guard. Pam, another one of the Americans, had a working phone and managed to reach Norwegian's emergency customer-service line at its corporate office in Miami. (Some of the names in this story are pseudonyms, and personal details have been changed.) But the woman on the other side said the only way the company could contact the vessel was by email. Eventually, the Coast Guard agreed to ferry the group over for a fee of about $250. Violeta Saunders, one of the Australians, uses a mobility scooter - to get her onboard, Coast Guard officers had to essentially throw her between them, across one of their pontoons. Everyone clapped when she made it.