I Survived a Fatal Ferry Sinking in the Bahamas. Why I’d Get on the Same Boat Tomorrow

"We looked over the edge and that's when we saw the water starting to go into the ferry"

Kelly and Chad Schissel of Platteville, Wisconsin, were on the last day of their vacation in the Bahamas on Nov. 14, 2023, when a boat carrying them and about 100 passengers to a private island sank.

A 74-year-old woman died following the capsizing but everyone else, including the Schissels, survived.

Here, Kelly, who posted footage from the dramatic incident that went later viral on TikTok, shares her story with PEOPLE’s David Chiu, in her own words.

It was a really nice day. We had all gotten on a double-decker ferry to Blue Lagoon Island and the ride was a little bumpy but no different from being on any boat in the water.

We were having fun and listening to music, but then we suddenly lurched forward. We just thought, "Okay, whatever," until we stayed leaning forward. Then one of the crew members from the bottom level came upstairs crying and freaking out and grabbed herself a life jacket.

We looked over the edge and that's when we saw the water starting to go into the ferry.

After getting life jackets of our own, we sat there waiting for staff to tell us what to do, but they never did. Eventually, it got to the point the boat was tipping so much that we just started jumping out.

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There were babies being nursed on that boat ride all the way to 90 year olds, and everyone in between. Some people knew how to swim, but some didn't.

There was a fisherman's boat that happened to go by and since I'm a good swimmer, I was able to reach it, although it wasn't easy by any means.

When I got into the boat, everybody looked the same with the orange life jackets on and I couldn't find my husband. Then I realized we had gotten separated.

He has a defibrillator, so I wondered, “If he gets shocked from the stress of this, what happens?” Still, although he's not the best swimmer, and had recently undergone reconstructive surgery on his ankle, I thought he should be okay.

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Then someone from the fisherman’s boat said, "We can't fit anybody else in here." I replied, "Well, go drop us off [at Blue Lagoon Island] and come back out."

At that point, another double-decker ferry showed up and fortunately, that's where Chad ended up.

When Chad arrived [on land after being separated] and saw me standing there on the dock, he started crying because he was relieved I was okay.

Once everybody got to land, we were all directed to this one small area of the island where we could be secluded from everybody else. We were over there for probably an hour or two because they wanted to double count, triple count and everything. [The island’s staff] offered everybody shirts and shoes because a lot of us lost all our stuff in the water.

After that, they said, "Okay, everybody has to get on a boat that looks exactly the same as the one that just sank and go back [to the cruise ship]." I asked, "Do we have the option to stay if we want to? We already made it here." But they said no.

We got loaded right onto another boat. There were kids crying, "I don't want to sink again. I don't want to go swimming," so we tired to calm them down. A lot of adults were even wearing life jackets on the way back. My husband asked if I wanted to, but I said, "There is no way they're going to sink two boats with the same group of people. They're going to go 2 miles an hour the whole way back. We'll be fine."

Once back on Nassau, Chad and I just walked around for a little bit and tried to enjoy the rest of the day.

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When we were still over in that secluded area of Blue Lagoon Island, we heard one person say a lady had died. And then someone replied, "Don't say that. You don't know that." When we eventually got back onto the cruise ship, I heard more people talking about it.

As it turned out, the woman, who was on the bottom level of the sunken ferry boat, had an oxygen tank and it got wet and stuck, so she ended up blacking out on the boat because of a lack of oxygen. Once they got her out, she was on a rescue boat that took her to the island. They were doing CPR, but they just couldn't bring her back.

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Afterwards, we had to go to the customer service desk because my husband lost his key card, which we swipe for food, drinks and to get into our room. We were also supposed to fill out a form for everything damaged or lost. They did refund our cruise. They sent us an email giving us an update on that after we were back on land.

To our knowledge, Royal Caribbean is still investigating everything. We haven’t been told officially what caused the accident. I think the captain just turned in too fast and with the choppy waters, it just filled up too much.

[Royal Caribbean referred PEOPLE's questions to officials on Blue Lagoon Island, whom Royal Caribbean said operated the tour. Blue Lagoon did not respond.]

I've seen so many things. I used to work at a prison and I’ve seen so many different car accidents — and been in a few myself. I swear this stuff happens to me all the time, which is why I was like, "Chad, I'm going to take a video because nobody's ever going to believe me that this happened."

I think the TikTok video is at 27.2 million right now for views. I thought it would be a big story, but I didn't know it would be that big.

A lot of people ask me, “Would I ever even go on another boat again?” And I'm like, "Yeah. I would even take the same exact boat that we used and go back to that same exact place. Just give me a different [ferry boat] crew because they didn't know what was going on."

And my advice is that when they tell you how to put on life jackets and what to do if there is an emergency, at least pay attention and have an exit plan in mind.

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