A voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti planned by two American women in May turned into a nightmare for them which lasted nearly five months.
Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiaba, with their dogs onboard a small sailboat, had an engine malfunction on 30 May due to bad weather in the Pacific Ocean. Despite that, they carried on hoping they would get to the land in sometime.
Two months into their journey the women started issuing distress calls. The two continued the calls daily, but they were not close enough to other vessels or shore stations to receive them.
“It was very depressing and very hopeless, but it’s the only thing you can do, so you do what you can do,” Appel said according to the Associated Press.
Two sharks attacked their boat one night, and one of them returned a day later, she said.
We were just incredibly lucky that our hull was strong enough to withstand the onslaught.Jennifer Appel
They were eventually spotted by a Taiwanese fishing vessel on 24 October about 900 miles southeast of Japan. The US Navy was alerted about the situation and the USS Ashland rescued the women and their dogs.
They saved our lives. The pride and smiles we had when we saw [US Navy] on the horizon was pure relief.
The Five Month Survival
Both the Honolulu based women did what one hopes the protagonist had always done in any Hollywood survival movie: bring extra food supply.
Appel told the Navy that they survived the situation by bringing water purifiers and over a year's worth of food on board, primarily in the form of dry goods such as oatmeal, pasta and rice.
Asked if they ever thought they might not survive, she said they would not be human if they did not. She credited the two dogs, which she called their companion animals, with keeping their spirits up.
"There is a true humility to wondering if today is your last day, if tonight is your last night," she said.
A photo provided by the Navy shows Fuiava smiling as a Navy sailor greets her dog, Zeus, aboard the USS Ashland.
The women received a medical assessment, food and beds aboard the Navy ship, where they will remain until the next port of call, the Navy said.
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