Two sailors who were rescued by the US Navy after more than five months lost at sea have arrived back on dry land.
Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava waved from USS Ashland as it docked at an American naval base in Japan on Monday.
They arrived at White Beach Naval Facility, in Okinawa, five days after the ship had picked them up, along with their two dogs, from their storm-damaged sailboat 900 miles southeast of Japan.
Appel and Fuiava had left Honolulu on May 3 aboard Appel’s 50-foot vessel, the Sea Nymph, for what was supposed to be an 18-day trip to Tahiti.
Jennifer Appel, right, and Tasha Fuiava with their dogs (AP Photo/Koji Ueda)
But storms flooded the engine and damaged the mast and sails so badly that they could not generate enough wind power to stay on course.
They drifted aimlessly and sent unanswered distress calls for 98 consecutive days.
The women were thousands of miles in the wrong direction when a Taiwanese fishing vessel found them. Towing the sailboat damaged it further, but Appel swam to the Taiwanese vessel to make a mayday call.
(AP Photo/Koji Ueda)
The pair had run out of food for the dogs, and had begun sharing their own, leaving their food supply 90% depleted by the time they were rescued.
The USS Ashland picked up the women, as well as their dogs Zeus and Valentine, on Wednesday, with all four looking remarkably fit for having been lost at sea for nearly six months.
Appel told reporters on Friday that they were beginning to believe they were completely out of luck when they saw the US Navy ship chugging towards them.
The USS Ashland (AP Photo/Ken Moritsugu)
“When I saw the grey ship on the horizon, I was just shaking,” she said. “I was ready to cry, I was so happy. I knew we were going to live.”
Although Appel has been sailing the Hawaiian islands for 10 years and spent two years preparing for this voyage, she acknowledged she and Fuiava, a novice sailor, may not have prepared as well as they could have.
Appel credited their survival in part to the veteran sailors in Hawaii who had warned them to prepare well for their journey.
“They said pack every square inch of your boat with food, and if you think you need a month, pack six months, because you have no idea what could possibly happen out there,” Appel said. “And the sailors in Honolulu really gave us good advice. We’re here.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here