Navy rescues two women who survived shark attacks, 5 months adrift on sailboat
HONOLULU — Their engine was crippled, their mast was damaged, and things went downhill from there for two women who set out to sail the 2,700 miles from Hawaii to Tahiti.
As their 50-foot sailboat drifted helplessly in the middle of the Pacific for months, their water purifier conked out, sharks started ramming their vessel, and their distress calls and signal flares went unanswered day after day.
Some nights they went to sleep wondering if they would live to see the sun rise.
Blew kisses to rescuers
Then their fortunes changed on Tuesday: Five-and-a-half months after Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava embarked on a journey that normally might take about three weeks, a Taiwanese fishing vessel spotted their boat 900 miles off Japan and thousands of miles in the wrong direction from Tahiti. The U.S. Navy sent the USS Ashland to their rescue.
“I had tears in my eyes,” said Appel, the Sea Nymph’s 48-year-old captain, who blew kisses to her rescuers as they pulled alongside. She and Fuiava quickly clambered aboard, followed by their dogs Zeus and Valentine, who were hoisted up.
“It was actually quite mind-blowing and incredibly humbling,” she told reporters during a conference call from the ship.
All four looked remarkably fit, and Appel credited that to veteran sailors who had warned them to prepare well for the voyage. They had packed enough food for a year, mostly dried goods like oatmeal and pasta.
The two set sail on May 3 and ran into trouble almost immediately, Appel said, hitting a storm that pounded their vessel with 50- to 70-mph winds for days as they traveled the Hawaiian islands.
Their engine went out toward the end of the month. They thought they could continue on with just their sails, but the rigging on the 57-foot mast was damaged and they were unable to make any headway.
So they drifted, sending out distress signals every day for 98 days straight. They said they also tried without success to hail a number of ships and fired off 10 signal flares.
“There is a true humility to wondering if today is your last day, if tonight is your last night,” she said.
Mom never lost hope in Houston
Meanwhile, loved ones had no idea where they were. Appel’s mother said she contacted the Coast Guard when she hadn’t heard from her a week and a half into the voyage.
Still, as the months passed, Joyce Appel said she never lost hope that the pair would be found.
“She is very resourceful and she’s curious, and as things break she tries to repair them. She doesn’t sit and wait for the repairman to get there,” said Joyce Appel, 75, who lives in Houston.
Although the Navy declared the Sea Nymph no longer seaworthy, Appel said she hopes to eventually recover it and perhaps take it out again.
“Well, you got to die sometime,” Appel said. “You may as well be doing something you enjoy when you’re doing it, right?”