Mem­bers of the WIT­CO Des­per­a­does Youth Or­ches­tra were left strand­ed in To­ba­go af­ter they were not al­lowed to board the 4 pm sail­ing of the Galleons Pas­sage on Wednes­day.

One of the group's di­rec­tors, Ginelle Mc­Don­ald, took to so­cial me­dia to ex­plain the sit­u­a­tion af­ter they ar­rived at the Scar­bor­ough Port at 3 pm and their con­firmed tick­ets were marked as stand by then they were not al­lowed on the boat.

"We got to the port, prob­a­bly about an hour be­fore be­cause we had an emer­gency with one of our play­ers who ac­tu­al­ly fell and dam­aged her back. So by the time we got there, one of our reps went in­side and they told us that we are not able to get on to the boat. And they took our con­firmed tick­et and made them stand by tick­ets," said Mc­Don­ald.

"Then they told us the next avail­able sail­ing is the 2nd of Sep­tem­ber," said Mc­Don­ald, who said the group then at­tempt­ed to ex­plain that it was a large group of chil­dren.

Af­ter not re­ceiv­ing any new in­for­ma­tion, Mc­Don­ald record­ed a mes­sage to so­cial me­dia as the group was asked to leave the Port.

Mc­Don­ald said that the group was look­ing for ac­com­mo­da­tion in To­ba­go for the group yes­ter­day evening, and she had post­ed to so­cial me­dia as a means to let the par­ents know about the sit­u­a­tion.

When con­tact­ed, com­mu­ni­ca­tions of­fi­cer for the Port Au­thor­i­ty, Vil­ma Lewis-Cock­burn said the group ar­rived at the Scar­bor­ough Port at 3:37 pm, by which time stand-by pas­sen­gers were al­ready processed to board the Galleons Pas­sage.

Lewis-Cock­burn said that they would at­tempt to ac­com­mo­date the group on a sail­ing sched­uled for Thurs­day.