Colorado family speaks after losing grandmother in boating incident in the Bahamas
Just three days since an excursion boat in the Bahamas sunk in the water while carrying more than 100 passengers, a Colorado family is speaking for the first time after losing one of their own in the incident.
"She was basically an angel on Earth. She had the biggest heart. She believed in God like no other," said Kayla Estep.
75-year-old Gayle Jarrett, of Broomfield, was the sole passenger on the excursion boat to Blue Lagoon Island that died when the boat capsized Tuesday morning.
Estep is Jarrett's granddaughter, but she says Jarrett was also like a second mother and a best friend.
"Her and I just loved shopping together, that was one of our favorite things to do together," said Estep. "She was giving, she gave and gave and gave"
She was so giving, according to Estep, that Jarrett used some inheritance money she received to take her family on a five day cruise trip to the Bahamas.
"It was my paternal grandma, my dad, my mom, both my grandma and grandpa from my mom's side, and then my husband, me and our two kiddos, six and one and a half," said Estep. "Just [to] enjoy our time as a family, because life's short."
It was a gift they never thought would end up cutting her life short.
"I want my grandma back, and life without her has been very difficult," said Estep.
After their cruise ship docked in the Bahamas, her entire family got on the bottom deck of an excursion boat headed to Blue Lagoon Island. They were originally supposed to get on a different boat, but that one was too full for their family.
"We ended up on the ferry that was in the accident," she said.
She said it was roughly half an hour later after getting on the boat that it started to sink.
"I was terrified," said Estep.
Water started flooding around the lower deck, surrounding her family.
"The very first thing I did was throw a life vest on my grandma," said Estep. "The ferry kept teetering, and we were sitting on the left side, and she ended up sliding down to the right side where all the water was."
While scrambling to get her children and other family out, Estep says her grandfather and father stayed behind to try and get Jarrett out. The captain of the ship also tried to help.
Jarrett was wearing an oxygen device on her back at the time the boat started sinking, which Estep says got caught around metal at some point during the incident.
"Even though she could go without oxygen, the fear I think took over, because the waves kept coming in through the window and taking my grandma and my grandpa underwater, over and over, and my grandmother was stuck," she said. "There was nothing to cut, no emergency supplies on that ferry."
Even in the early moments as the boat started sinking, Estep did not feel like the crew on board was well equipped or prepared to handle the emergency.
"All of the passengers were waiting for crew instruction, and we didn't get it," said Estep. "Then, one person jumped off the top floor and we all followed."
While the incident remains under investigation, Estep believes her grandmother's death could have been prevented.
"That's up to whoever owns the ferry, that the crew is properly prepared for an accident, and they were not prepared for this," she said.
Estep also says they were not ordered to wear life jackets when they got on the boat, so they were scrambling to get those on as the boat was sinking.
Her message to families: don't wait.
"Wear your life vest right away," said Estep. "No matter how big the portion of water you're going to be going through you should be wearing a life vest right away."
