Watching from the beach? It suits him. Rather than circling the wagons, they must have wanted to watch for any unexpected comings and goings. [Temenos has already called them an unruly flock before; to Waltaquin, it seems obvious that despite his protestations, the priest-detecting has some habits of that ingrained still.]

Chai probably had his own ideas and lost track of time.

[And, as they will learn at the trial, the arcade crew didn't even realize that anything was strange about their location at the time.]

If you start feeling responsible for not saving people, you're more likely to miss something important in the future.