AN UNFORGIVABLE sin is what Emris Simon told rescuers pushed her to jump off the inter-island ferry, the T&T Spirit, while it was in mid-journey to Trinidad yesterday.

Simon, 59, was among hundreds of passengers who were booked to travel on the inter-island ferry .

The T&T Spirit was scheduled to leave Scarborough in Tobago on its way to Port of Spain around 1.30 p.m. yesterday.

However, the ship never set sail until 2.55 p.m, passengers on the vessel complained yesterday.

Simon was seated at the back of the boat when it eventually left the port, eyewitnesses said. Then 20 minutes into the journey, the unthinkable happened. Simon got up from her seat, climbed the ship’s railing and dived into the water, an eyewitness said.

Several other passengers who were at the back of the boat looked on in shock.

A few young passengers however responded to the death defying dive and informed the crew of the incident.

’We were seated inside the boat and then some boys ran in and said that a woman had jumped off the boat,’ a passenger, who requested anonymity, told the Express when the ship docked in Port of Spain around 6.30 p.m. yesterday.

’The boys ran to the bartenders and told them that a woman was in the water,’ the passenger said. The crew swung into action.

The boat which was speeding toward Trinidad was said to have been close to 400 metres away from Simon from where she was in the water, eyewitnesses said.

A life raft with three crew members was lowered into the water, while the T&T Spirit was stopped.

The crew were able to save Simon who screamed that she did not want to be saved because God would not forgive her for what she had done, a source said.

Simon never told the crew what that unforgivable sin was.

But she insisted that death was her only option for salvation, the source said.

The inter-island ferry turned around and Simon was safely taken back on board.

The two-and-a-half hours that it usually takes the ferry to travel between the two islands took some four hours yesterday.

Around 6.30 p.m. when the ferry docked, and an ambulance was positioned to care for Simon as she was taken off the boat.

Simon was said to be in a satisfactory condition at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

Many passengers that the Express spoke to yesterday expressed shock over the incident and surprise that Simon was still alive after the incident.

Co-ordinator of Vessivny Viking Sailing Team, Betty Suite, who was on the vessel said it was a traumatic situation for her and fellow members.

Deputy CEO of the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, Leon Grant, commended the ship’s crew for their prompt response to the incident.

Further investigations into the matter are to be conducted.

-with reporting by Elizabeth Allard