If you are stranded, you are stuck in a place and cannot get away — usually because your transport has failed or the way out is blocked. Passengers stranded at the airport by a typhoon; a car stranded in the snow; a whale stranded on the beach when the tide goes out. Two feelings ride along with the word: it is not your fault, and you are helpless — you cannot fix it yourself, you need a bus, a boat, a tow truck, someone to come. That is what separates it from 'stuck', which is wider and lighter (stuck in traffic, stuck on question 3). The origin is the beach: a 'strand' is an old word for a shore, and a stranded ship is one run up onto the sand where the water can't lift it — which is a very good picture to keep. People also stretch it away from places: 'when my co-writer quit I was left stranded', meaning abandoned without support. Note that it is nearly always passive — you ARE stranded, you GET stranded, you are LEFT stranded; you rarely strand yourself.