A planned voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti aboard a small sailboat did not start off well for two Honolulu women. One of their cellphones washed overboard and sank into the deep blue water on their first day at sea.
From there, things got worse. Much worse.
About a month into their trip, bad weather caused their engine to lose power. Their mast was damaged. And then, as they drifted across thousands of kilometers of open ocean, their water purifier stopped working.
However, the two sailors, accompanied by their dogs, were resourceful and prepared with more than a year’s worth of food, and after more than five months of being lost in the vast Pacific Ocean, sending out daily distress calls that no one heard, they were rescued by the US Navy on Wednesday about 1,450km southeast of Japan.
Their intended destination: Tahiti — thousands of kilometers off course.
The USS Ashland rescued the women after a Taiwanese fishing vessel spotted their crippled vessel on Tuesday and alerted the US Coast Guard, the navy said in a statement released on Thursday.
The women, identified by the navy as Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava, both of Honolulu, lost their engine in bad weather in late May, but believed they could still reach Tahiti using their sails.
“They saved our lives,” Appel said in a navy release. “The pride and smiles we had when we saw [the navy] on the horizon was pure relief.”
In a telephone call from the Ashland with news media, Appel said they had sent a distress signal for 98 days with no response, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
“It was very depressing and very hopeless, but it’s the only thing you can do, so you do what you can do,” the newspaper quoted her as saying.
She also said the ordeal was life-changing, Hawaii News Now reported.
“There is a true humility to wondering if today is your last day, if tonight is your last night,” she was quoted as saying.
Two months into their trip, well after they were scheduled to arrive in Tahiti, the women began making distress calls, but there were no vessels close and they were too far out to sea for the signals to be detected on land.
They told the navy that they survived because they had packed a water purifier and enough food for a year, mostly dried goods such as oatmeal and pasta.
A photograph 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 ship, where they are to remain until the next port of call, the navy said.
“The US Navy is postured to assist any distressed mariner of any nationality during any type of situation,” said Commander Steven Wasson, the commanding officer of the USS Ashland.
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