Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiaba had set off in a small sailing boat from Hawaii on a trip to Tahiti when their engine, damaged by the bad weather, failed....For 2 months, they relied on wind and sails, then they began distress calls, but they weren't close enough to anything to be heard. Fortunately, they had "a water purifier and a large store of dry goods such as oatmeal and pasta."
Finally, they were seen — by a Taiwanese fishing vessel — and that led to the rescue.
"Asked if they ever thought they might not survive, [Appel] 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."
"A sailor greets Zeus the dog with his owner Tasha Fuiaba, left, on the boat deck of the USS Ashland. Photograph: Mass Communication Specialist 3r/AP."
Zeus the dog!
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At least they were better prepared than the Robert Redford character in the movie "All Is Lost," which was a chore to sit through, but still interesting.
Must have been boring. The dog's nails are manicured perfectly.
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 being delicious.
That's where I thought the story was going. I was happy to be wrong.
Why is a sailboat dependent on an engine? How could they not have sailed to their destination? Were they unable to navigate? This story does not make sense.
Yachtswomen? Hardly. They were way out of their depth and are lucky to be alive.
Points for trying though.
Were they sailing in circles or what.
Hooray for those sea dogs!
A three hour tour.. .
As for being too far away to radio anything, I talk around the world with my little 15w transceiver on the desk.
You need a reason to keep going. If taking care of the dogs was their reason, then the dogs truly did help save their lives.
Yeah I'm not understanding. They were so prepared but they did not have GPS or navigation skills. No satellite phone?
They had the food, but they forgot about that nasty navigation thing. They were damn lucky.
Norm Macdonald: Homeless guy's dog
Who is Madame Chunx back there, and why is she flashing a gang sign while wearing a tee-shirt reading My Shirt Is Brighter than Your Future?
This story does not make sense.
I'm trying to make sense of it too. It does imply something was wrong with their main mast but it's in an upright position in the boat photo. How hard is it to rig a makeshift spinnaker?
I'm futilely resisting the temptation to criticize for not having a man on board to fix things.
I am with Bill of Texas. With all the navigation aids available today you would have to be a real numb nut not to be able to get where you wanted to go. Yes, I know sails and the wind, but there are tactics to deal with the wind.
"...a large store of dry goods such as oatmeal and pasta."
Five months worth?
Including feeding the dogs?
I am Laslo.
They were so prepared but they did not have GPS or navigation skills.
I had a conversation with a pair of wannabe yachtsmen who were convinced that GPS and an autopilot could get them anywhere. They really thought that if they could just throw enough money in the water they could dispense with training and experience. Words like leeway failed completely to register in their beer-addled brains.
Five months worth? Including feeding the dogs?
Zeus evidently missed few meals.
This story is bullshit.
I'm futilely resisting the temptation to criticize for not having a man on board to fix things.
He pinched some ass and they made him walk the plank?
Also, who says they started with only two dogs?
It’s 2600 miles south from Hawaii to their intended destination of Tahiti, and 4000 miles west from Hawaii to Japan, which they were found 900 miles from. That’s 5700 miles off course. It’s a big ocean.
How expensive are satellite based distress beacons/phones? I seem to recall them selling for about $600 (with a $20 monthly fee) a while back. Seems like a good investment for anyone going into the wilderness or open ocean alone.
But hey, I'm glad they all made it back.
Two US yachtswomen and their two dogs...
Has anyone checked how many dogs they started with?
Would a satellite phone have enabled them to be rescued sooner? I know that they are expensive, but if you're sailing across the Pacific, it might be a wise investment.
Yes, Bad Lieutenant, they had everything they needed except a compass, a sextant, and a man to fix things. What an embarrassing sailing story. Set sail with a YEAR of food, including dog food, but no means to rig a sail to your apparently PERFECTLY INTACT mast. Maybe they were lesbians, and neither wanted to climb the pole.
The wearer of the "My Shirt Is Brighter" doesn't seem the worse for the time at sea.
Their boat wasn't that small; it provided sufficient shelter. Of course it could have been knocked down, over, by a big storm. Bigger boats, ships, are subject to similar fates. So barring a catastrophic storm, they were likely to survive just by drifting. It would only be a matter of time before something turned up. And that's what happened. A Taiwanese fishing boat saw them. If it wasn't that, it would have been something else.
But why weren't they trying to do more to get themselves out of the jam? When the Navy approached I noticed that the sails were furled.
These women and dogs looked to be in remarkable condition for having bobbed around in the Pacific for 5 months and eaten pasta and oatmeal. Some might even say unbelievable condition. Would definitely like to learn more about this adventure, including how they expected to get the 2300 or so nautical miles from Hawaii to Tahiti in a boat that probably had a maximum powered range of 400 nm. Also, assuming this boat would make at least 5 knots under sail, they could have sailed around 18,000 nm in 5 months, or almost around the world, so why couldn't they get to land somewhere? Could they not sail? Asking for a friend.
Quaestor said...
This story is bullshit.
I agree.
what this bullshit
Yore Quotes
Make new friends
Get lost, Boulos. Preferably out at sea.
They had the food, but they forgot about that nasty navigation thing.
They forgot much more than they remembered.
I figure if they had enough money for a years supply of food they had enough to make sure they had a very very good ENGINE. Apparently they skipped the maintenance on the engine.
And yes, in a storm, no engine means they have no bulge pumps, no lights, no control of the ship. They undoubtedly would have sunk.
@Agricola:Why is a sailboat dependent on an engine? How could they not have sailed to their destination?
Sailboats are dependent on winds. They can't just go any direction they like at any speed they like. To sail from Hawaii to Tahiti would require reliable winds that support sailing in that direction, which may not be true at all times of the year, or in all years.
From 1568 to 1815, just about every year, a galleon would sail from Manila to Acapulco, which took four months if all went well. In some years they never made it, because the winds didn't cooperate.
There were similar suspicions when the four members of the New Zealand trimaran Rose-Noelle came ashore after being adrift for 119 days in 1989. They ate well at sea. Three novice passengers and a captain who lost control during a storm, largely because his shipmates panicked.
The New Zealand government actually investigated them, thinking it was some sort of bizarre hoax or crime.
https://www.amazon.com/Capsized-True-Story-Four-Adrift/dp/0060179619
Not saying that everything reported in the story makes sense, seems there is a lot of incomplete information. But it's not trivial to get from one place to another by sailing. People spend their whole lives learning to sail and even experienced sailors sometimes don't make it if they are trying to go a long way.
Yeah, this whole think sounds off.
Questions unanswered:
What were their qualifications, skills, and experience for making such a trip?
When had they expected to reach their destination? What percentage of the way did they make it before they lost their engine? Before their mast "broke"?
What were they using for navigation? What records did they keep of their progress/location?
Yep, one look at her and the dog and it was clear this was nonsense. A year's supply of food for two people and two dogs? The stupidity and willful gullibility of the media is just another reason to shower them with contempt.
Here's an article that can give an idea of why you can't just point your sailboat at Tahiti from Hawaii and expect to get there:
tl; dr version: To do this successfully you have to do it at the right time of year, and you spend part of the time going in the wrong direction.
The crossing from Hawai'i to Tahiti presented two main challenges, one in sailing, the other in navigation. The longitude of the Hawaiian island of Maui, our starting point, lies some 500 miles west of the longitude of Tahiti. Since the trade winds along the route generally blow from the northeast above the equator, and from the southeast below it, in order to reach Tahiti, Hokule'a had to sail well enough to windward to make up the 500 miles of longitude and while also fighting the westward moving current that typically accompanies the trades. Our strategy to accomplish this was to sail as hard into the wind as the canoe would point without losing too much speed in order to gain maximum easting in the northeast trades, and then to hold on to as much of that easting as possible when, below the equator, the winds shift to the southeast and would start pushing us to the southwest.
5 months?
I'm not calling bullshit. I'm calling incompetence.
Maybe they were just very sweet, ever think about that!
total BS
sailboats setting out to cross the ocean have fuel for 2 days, so losing the engine had no impact
not being able to you know, sail, is a problem. a transpac boat, has multiple sails stored below. any idiot needs to be able to jury rig any number of workable configs even if you lost most of the mast, which they did not.
don't started on GPS, Sat phones and emergency Sat beacons.
This is a publicity event. book deal TBD
best part: "lost the phone on day 1"
next best: "A group of sharks attacked their boat one night, and a single shark returned a day later, she said. “Both of them, we actually thought it was lights out, and they were horrific. We were just incredibly lucky that our hull was strong enough to withstand the onslaught.”
Another segment from that article: Despite a week spent becalmed in the doldrums...
Doldrums are areas where there isn't enough wind to make sails work sometimes for weeks at a time. When you cross the equator, as you do going from Hawaii to Tahiti, you pass through these areas.
@The Drill SGT:not being able to you know, sail, is a problem. a transpac boat, has multiple sails stored below
No one who knew how to sail would have attempted to get from Hawaii to Tahiti in the way they did. They might as well not have had sails for all the good sails would have done them, even if they knew how to sail.
Also, who says they started with only two dogs?
Who says they started with only two girls ?
I like this attitude more than I like the "FEMA come and rescue me" attitude.
Have emergency supplies on hand and a plan, people. You are the person who cares most about you in this world, so save yourself first, then rely on locals, and then the federal government.
This story reeks of Balloon Boyism.
Zeus the dog!
I was idly wondering why we haven’t seen pictures of him for quite a while. He looks abut thinner in that picture.
Columbus was adrift in the Ocean for 5 months without an Engine and made it all the way to America
Agree with everyone. Something is wrong.
Note: if this was 2 men, there would be no story in USA today - just criticism.
The bigotry of soft expectations.
Who says they started with only two girls ?
10/27/17, 9:06 AM
I like the way you think. I wonder if they only had one cup.
Amelia Earhart tried something similar. Gurl Power, Fearless Girl, turtle pip!
Total bullshit.
I'm with many others here. This story is just that. A story.
Gabriel, that’s all great, but they didn’t have to sail to their original destination to get rescued—unless they were like the stubborn sub commander in The Enemy Below.
"Two US yachtswomen and their two dogs have been rescued by the US Navy after spending nearly five months adrift in the Pacific Ocean..."
Can you really be called a yachtswoman if you don't have the faintest idea how to pilot a boat?
Zeus the Dog, Jabba the Hutt, Vlad the Impaler, Jack the Ripper, Mott the Hoople, Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Mack the Knife, Winnie the Pooh . . .
Anyone know the grammatical word for this locution?
@Earnest Prole:Anyone know the grammatical word for this locution?
Epithet. Richard the Lion-heart, Hereward the Wake, etc.
The article only mentions having drygoods. Any of that dried fruit or vitamin supplements? After that much time, seems like scurvy would be an issue.
The sailboat rental place will be happy to have their boat back. Lesson learned to check renters for certification.
Can you really be called a yachtswoman if you don't have the faintest idea how to pilot a boat?
Yeah, I'm wondering if the navy is going to return them to port, or put them in command of a destroyer.
tim in vermont said...
Amelia Earhart tried something similar. Gurl Power, Fearless Girl, turtle pip!
She didn't know how to work a radio either. Which I'm suspicious about in this latest case. If they couldn't get an SOS out where someone would hear it, they weren't trying very hard.
A Run through the Trades
"A boat averaging 7 knots can complete the passage in in approximately 14 days."
They left May 3rd. They didn't lose their engine until late May. Even assuming they were only going 3 knots they would have been well past the doldrums before they lost the engine.
Ignorance, ha! That deserves to get mentioned in the post.
Now that I actually got around to reading the article, the one woman seems awfully plump and her clothes fit very tight for five months on short rations. Add me to the list of folks who smell a hoax.
Yeah, I'm wondering if the navy is going to return them to port, or put them in command of a destroyer.
Now, that's funny.
She didn't know how to work a radio either.
Well, to be fair, that was Fred Noonan's job.
A friend of mine who is an expert on sailing (currently building his own boat) posted this remark on Facebook:
...they would have to have crossed at least one, and possibly two belts of the trade winds to get [where they were found] from South of Hawaii. The time they spent at sea, and the marine growth on the hull, seems consistent with drifting, rather than sailing.
As for getting lost -- the engine is not the part that navigates. My friend: "They have a wind generator visible on their stern."
Balloon boy.
@Henry:.they would have to have crossed at least one, and possibly two belts of the trade winds to get [where they were found] from South of Hawaii.
Yes, with doldrums in between the two belts, which might have entailed weeks of drifting.
The only way this story would have made any sense, is if they had been rescued from Gilligan's Island.
Captain Bligh did far better with fewer resources.
"This story does not make sense."
It's bullshit. I've sailed from California to Hawaii. The mast and sails look intact in the Navy video clip.
In a trip like that, the engine is only used for charging the battery and going into port.
There was a story a few years ago about a young couple who knew nothing, trying to sail to Hawaii from here.
The boat was finally found 500 miles west of Hawaii with the girl alive and the guy dead. They had sailed right past the islands.
There is a pretty good by by Vincent Bugliosi called "And the Sea Will Tell," about a foolish young couple who sailed to Palmyra, about half way to Tahiti.
They dodn;t know what they were doing and the guy murdered another couple and stole their boat to get back to Hawaii.
Pretty good story, unlike this one. The ocean does not suffer fools.
"Captain Bligh did far better with fewer resources."
Bligh's story is the greatest example of small boat navigation in history.
Nordoff and Hall made him a villain and overshadowed that tale of amazing seamanship
In the movie, there should be puppies...
Bligh's story is the greatest example of small boat navigation in history.
Voyage of the James Caird is right up there!
The gods were smiling on them that day.
Is this, perhaps, one of those stories about elitist city dweller types who have had life so easy, that they decided to become sailors, with no idea what they are doing?
Something doesn't smell right about the story, with major inconsistencies; but the laugh out loud comments above make this certainly a worth while item to follow.
I just bought a 2-way GPS, $450. It works anywhere on earth, sends and receives texts. It can send an SOS with name & location. Rescue in the US is included in the monthly fee, rescue anywhere in the world is approx. $100 bucks/yr.
Gabriel said...
@Earnest Prole:Anyone know the grammatical word for this locution?
Epithet. Richard the Lion-heart, Hereward the Wake, etc.
Gray eyed Athena, the unlinkable OED...
"Something doesn't smell right about the story,"
It sounds like a hoax to me.
"The sailboat rental place will be happy to have their boat back."
The article says the rescuers declared their sailboat not seaworthy. I think that means they are going to sink it.
Gabriel said...
Epithet. Richard the Lion-heart, Hereward the Wake, etc.
Ignorance the Human Tripod.
"Wendy the human" just doesn't work..unless you're an English speaking animal.
This is not a Polynesian sailing canoe or a 16th Century Spanish Galleon. It's a modern sloop-rigged sailing vessel. Although it can't sail directly into the wind, it can readily sail to an upwind destination by tacking, provided there's wind. Others have explained why the doldrums shouldn't have presented an insuperable problem. Unless the story is a complete fabrication (which I wouldn't discount), the "broken" mast may have been some problem with the rigging that prevented them from raising the sail -- something a couple of "yachtswomen" should have been able to deal with. If this story is real, they are very fortunate not to have won a Darwin Award for their exploits.
The whole story stinks of some sort of PR gag about women.
As for sailing, there was an interesting story some years ago, about a sailor from Marina Dey Rey in Los Angeles who was found dead in his yacht which was still sailing well a month or so after he died. It was on an autopilot and the sailor was found in skeletal condition on the cabin floor.
I can't find the article anymore but his yacht was doing just fine a month after he died. These women are doing some sort of scam.
You know what other story has begun to stink (if you didn't think that it stunk earlier)? The Las Vegas shooting. We knew more(?) the day that it happened, than what we know now. Who in the hell is this so-called security guard.
I just bought a 2-way GPS, $450. It works anywhere on earth...
Yea but, does it float with a strobe when it gets wet.
The women were hired as drug mules. They knew only enough about sailing to be dangerous.
It has a lanyard that attaches to me and/or flotation.
Two words: Louis Zamperini.
Odd that no one noticed them overdue in five months. Did they not even have Facebook friends?
According to one of their mothers, she notified the Coast Guard a week and a half after they left, because they had not been in contact ( due to the phone that was lost on the first day. ) She claims the Coast Guard conducted a search.
I assume someone will follow up on that claim with the Coast Guard.
I'm waiting until their GoFundMe page shows up.
This is some sort of scam.
@ Michael K: Nordhoff and Hall's second volume of the "The Bounty Trilogy", "Men Against the Sea", portrays Captain Bligh as the consummate seaman, additionally blessed with that leadership...something, the which, commands and controls by force of will. Whatever really happened on the Bounty, afterwards its Captain acquitted himself honorably.
Bligh: Casting me adrift miles from a port of call.
You're sending me to my doom, eh?
Well, you're wrong, Mr. Christian!
I'll take this boat as she floats
to England if I must!
l'll live to see you, all of you...
Hanging from the highest yardarm
in the British fleet!
"I think that means they are going to sink it."
I think I read they just left it. It was probably seaworthy, but not worth the bother for a Navy ship.
The article noted that one of the women had never sailed before at all.
I think I read they just left it.
Wouldn't do that...could easily become a hazard...they either sunk it or towed it.
I agree 100% with Michael K. This is a hoax/scam of some sort.
What no one is talking about is that they started the journey with three dogs.
Not necessarily a hoax. They could just be utter idiots.
Assuming they're telling the truth, they should have turned back as soon as their satellite phone went overboard. Then they should have started radio distress calls as soon as their engine was disabled. Instead, they say they pressed on after losing their safety margin. That's how you wind up dead, folks.
TML said...
What no one is talking about is that they started the journey with three dogs.
One of them didn't like peanut butter.
There is an extended interview with the navy the two women did when they were first rescued - on youtube. They are both standing during the interview. The younger one's skin looks great. Of course it's natural to wonder about weight and that they or maybe just one of them didn't seem to lose much. But examine the food that was consumed (either 6 months or a year's worth) and it was almost all carbs. In the presence of insulin, calories are stored as fat, period - end of story. That may explain the lack of wt loss. Then again, maybe they did lose weight, we haven't seen the before pictures.
As for scurvy, as Gary Taubes likes to remind us, the Eskimos did not get it. Why not? There were not orange groves in their once frozen homes. Or much of any other source of vitamin C.
On Fox this AM, the Coast Guard found an unused emergency beacon on board that could have been activated manually. It also activates automatically if submerged in water.
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