DOUBTS GROW ABOUT WOMEN’S ‘LOST AT SEA’ STORY
TWO Hawaiian women who say they were lost at sea for five months never activated their emergency beacon and described running into a fearsome storm meteorologists say didn’t exist, adding to a grow- ing list of inconsistencies that cast doubt on their harrowing tale of survival.
A Coast Guard review and subsequent interviews with Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava revealed that they had the device aboard their sailboat but never turned it on.
Ms Appel said in her experience, the beacon should be used only when facing imminent physical danger and death in the next 24 hours.
“Our hull was solid, we were floating, we had food, we had water, and we had limited manoeuverable capacity,” Ms Appel said in Japan, where the US Navy took them after their rescue last week.
The women left on May 3, when they said they hit a fierce storm off Oahu. The National Weather Service said no organised storm systems were in or near Hawaii that day or in the days afterwards.