Doubt clouds incredible survival story
Inconsistencies are mounting as American women recount the months they spent at sea
HONOLULU— The dramatic story of two Honolulu women who were lost at sea for nearly six months before being rescued by the U.S. navy played out on front pages and websites worldwide. But in the days since, inconsistencies in their account have come to light, and some of their story has changed.
Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava said they intended to take their sailboat, the Sea Nymph, from Honolulu to Tahiti, then sail around the South Pacific before heading back to Honolulu in November. But they said they encountered engine problems, suffered damage to the boat’s masthead and lost all communications.
Here’s a look at some of the inconsistencies in their story: Bad weather, lost phone Appel and Fuiava left for their planned 18-day trip to Tahiti on May 3. The women said they encountered a fierce storm that unleashed 97 kilometre-per-hour winds with nine-metre seas. The pair said they rode out the storm that lasted three days because there were no ports deep enough in Maui or the Big Island for their modified 15-metre sailboat.
The National Weather Service reported no bad storms during that time. And numerous ports on Maui and the Big Island can accommodate vessels as large as cruise ships.
The women said they lost their cellphone overboard during the May 3 storm. The coast guard deployed a plane, which found the sailboat about 214 kilometres south of the Big Island. The Sea Nymph reported it was not in distress. Communications The pair said they had six ways to communicate, ranging from VHF radio to a satellite phone, but all failed. Phil Johnson, a retired coast guard officer who was responsible for search and rescue operations, said he had never heard of all communication devices failing.
The women carried an emergency beacon, which uses satellites to send a location to authorities in minutes.
Appel said the beacons only work if airplanes are flying overhead and the pilots would relay the information to the coast guard. She said she didn’t activate it because they were not under a known flight path.
“The system does not rely in any way on aircraft to pick up their signal and relay their information,” Johnson said Tuesday by phone. “It’s all done by satellite.” Boating plan Mariners are encouraged to file their planned routes with friends or relatives in case of problems. Appel told reporters she left a plan with her mother in Houston and with friends in Honolulu.
Coast guard officials met with Appel and Fuiava in Japan this week and learned no plan was filed. Fuiava also said she had informed family of their route and that relatives had reported the pair missing with calls from California, American Samoa and Alaska. The Coast Guard has no records of those calls. Calls to Coast Guard Appel’s mother, Joyce, said she called the coast guard in Hawaii about 10 days after the voyage started when she hadn’t heard from her daughter. The agency said it was contacted on May 19 by a male friend of the family reporting the pair overdue into Tahiti. It calculated the normal course and speed for a sailboat and told the caller they would probably not arrive until mid-June. Tahiti call? A coast guard plane was looking for another missing boat near Tahiti on June 15 and also tried to contact the women’s vessel on VHF radio. It got a response from a boat identifying itself as the Sea Nymph, which said it planned to make land in Tahiti the following morning. However, Appel told the coast guard after the rescue that they were 1,500 miles away on June 12. The plane could not have made contact that far away, Coast Guard Lt. Scott Carr said. Sharks The women said huge tiger sharks bombarded their boat for hours one night. They claimed a group of six- to nine-foot tiger sharks split up and tried to capsize the boat.
University of Hawaii professor and veteran shark researcher Kim Holland has never heard stories of any kind of shark repeatedly attacking a boat. In fact, no sharks are known to hunt in packs, he said. Wake Island The women seemed to be out of radio contact for months. Not until an interview Monday in Japan did they mention an attempt to radio for help at Wake Island on Oct. 1 or 2.
The women said the harbour is built for submarines and they couldn’t navigate in without a motor. They called for help for a tow, but said no one seemed to understand them and they drifted off.