A New Hampshire couple recently walked 7NEWS through terrifying moments when a ferry boat carrying more than 100 people sank Wednesday in the Bahamas.
Melissa and Mark Kazemier were on a birthday cruise and excursion when the boat they were on suddenly started taking on water on its way to an island.
“One wave right after another and the nose of the boat went down and it never really recovered,” Melissa said.
Melissa said the side of the boat she and Mark were on “was going down very quickly.”
With strong waves continuing to crash into their sinking boat, Melissa said her husband grabbed lifejackets.
“He helped me put mine on and there was a couple behind us that had a two-year-old and a four-year-old with them and so, of course they’re struggling to get vests on the two children,” she said. “So, my husband helped them.”
Moments later, Mark and Melissa jumped into the water.
“When it reached a point where we were getting slammed around in the boat, that’s when we got off the boat,” Mark said.
“My husband said ‘Go, go go, get out of here, just keep swimming,’ because he was afraid, if the boat went over, that it was going to take even the people in the water down with it,” Melissa said.
Officials said a woman in her 70s died. Two other people were reportedly taken to the hospital following the sinking.
Melissa and Mark said they floated in the water for about 45 minutes before a nearby fisherman, who had called the Coast Guard, was able to pick them up.
“It was really a scary ordeal,” Melissa said. “We didn’t know if there were sharks in the water.”
“If it wasn’t for the local fisherman that stopped and helped a few of us, who knows how long we would have floated out there,” Mark said.
Melissa and Mark got their money back for their day excursion but said they have yet to hear from or receive an apology from the cruise line in this incident.
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