Two Women and Their Dogs Found After 5 Months at Sea
(CNN)Two women from Hawaii who were lost at sea for nearly five months have been rescued by the US Navy.
Jennifer Appel, Tasha Fuiava and their two dogs were found Wednesday, drifting about 900 miles southeast of Japan, a Navy statement said.
"It was incredibly emotional and it was so satisfying to know the men and women that serve our country would come and assist us," Appel said in a call with the media Thursday. "It was actually quite mind-blowing and incredibly humbling."
The pair left Hawaii on May 3 on the Sea Nymph, bound for Tahiti, about 2,600 miles way. They ran into trouble on May 30 when bad weather flooded the engine with water, Appel said. The women decided to keep sailing, but strayed off course, according to the Navy.
The ship's mast was also damaged, compromising the structural integrity, and limiting the Sea Nymph's capabilities to maneuver, Appel said in the call, obtained through CNN affiliate KHNL/KGMB.
Then the ship lost its communications capabilities.
After two months -- past the time they estimated they would arrive in Tahiti -- the Honolulu residents began sending out daily distress calls, the Navy said. But they were too far away from other boats and shore stations to be heard.
"You can't get any help at all because you're in the middle of nowhere," Fuiava said.
Appel and Fuiava survived on a year's worth of dry goods, including oatmeal, pasta and rice, the Navy said. They also had a water purifier.
"If they hadn't been found there (off Japan) there's a good chance they'd have gone back out to the Pacific," Ebbesmeyer said. "The North Pacific is a really rough ocean in the winter. ... They're lucky to be alive."
He [Ebbesmeyer] said flotsam and boats usually drift an average of 20 miles daily in the ocean. The distance and direction the women's sailboat covered was "a normal drift pattern," assuming it started drifting north of the equator, he said.
The women were smart to pack the water purifier, he said.
Full story here.
This is incredible for a couple of reasons.
It’s unbelievable that first of all, these women were found, and it’s even more miraculous that they and their dogs didn’t eat each other. They’re adrift for five months, their boat is being attacked by sharks, and nobody is stress eating a best friend? That’s a miracle.
I’ll be honest, I think it would be very hard to eat a dog, but not that hard to eat a dead person. Odds are you sucked.
People are scumbags and dogs are blessings. It doesn’t get much more clear cut than that. You’ve made a thousand mistakes in your life, you’re ultimately motivated by greed, and you’re actively killing our planet in some way. Sure, I would be nervous- but all I’ve got to do is tell myself that you think Lebron James is better than Michael Jordan and BOOM I’m ready to eat.
Also the dog DIDN’T GET TO CHOOSE to go on this boat! That’s my nightmare: just being a dog whose owner loves sailing across the world. I just get to sit there day in and day out, not really enjoying myself, trying to please my master, waiting for the one small mistake they’ll eventually make that will get us stranded and me eaten.
Also very casual to point out that “it’s good they had a water purifier”. THAT’S NOT SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE AUTOMATICALLY HAVE? I would think that was first on the checklist before setting sail across an ocean. Now, I’m a self-labeled “open water coward” and stranded at sea I would have the mental fortitude of a frightened rodent, so I never leave port without assuming I’m going to die. I just assume the worst- “oh the only thing separating us from death is this boat? And it will sink if it gets a hole in it or stops working?”, yeah I’m assuming that I’m going to die.
I can’t walk to the bathroom without stubbing my toe, how am I supposed to navigate the open ocean without hitting a rock, another boat, a shark, or anything in the world that floats and has sharp corner? I won’t go deep sea fishing without making sure all of my affairs are in order- I’m talking last will and testament, voicemails to Mom and Dad apologizing for using the family credit card to buy pizza that one time, letters to ex-girlfriends asking for one more chance set to send upon my disappearance, and lastly a water purifier. I think that unintentionally makes me an incredible sailor. You worry about the jib, I’ll worry about the overwhelming sense of dread and mortality hanging over my head.
