Incredible Footage And Story Of Two Women Being Rescued After Five Months Lost At Sea
Source – Two amateur sailors set first feet on land Monday after spending nearly half a year lost at sea — a journey they said took them through shark attacks and waves as tall as office buildings, and nearly killed them on the brink of their rescue by the U.S. Navy.
Appel’s voyage began thousands of miles away in Hawaii, when she, Tasha Fuiava and their two dogs set off in a sailboat on May 3 to explore — they thought — Tahiti and other Pacific islands thousands of miles to the south.
The pair had spent years preparing for the journey, and stuffed the 50-foot Sea Nymph with food and provisions — just in case the trip lasted more than the planned two-and-a-half weeks.
On their first day at sea, Appel said, a violent storm hit with waves as high as 50 feet. The storm lashed the Sea Nymph for three days, but when it finally subsided, the women were more confident than ever in their abilities, and decided to sail on.
From there, problems spiraled. The boat’s mast was somehow damaged, and its frame was too big to dock at the tiny island of Kiribati for repairs.
So they kept sailing, hobbled and already hundreds of miles off their planned course. At the end of May — long after the women were supposed to have reached Tahiti — a white squall flooded their cockpit and wrecked the engine. Now they were simply adrift.
They did what they could to survive. The ship’s water purifier broke, according to the Guardian, but they figured out how to fix it. When the dog food ran out, Zeus and Valentine made do with the women’s provisions — mostly dry goods like oatmeal, pasta and nuts.
They had packed enough food to last them a year, they thought, but the supply was dwindling rapidly.
And the ocean brought other dangers. One day, the women recalled, a pack of tiger sharks found them. The sharks started ramming the boat, and kept at it so long it that seemed to Appel they were hunting.“When those things would hit the boat, my own teeth would rattle in my head,” Appel told reporters. She and Fuiava and the dogs all huddled on the floor below deck. “I told them not to bark because the sharks could hear us breathing. They could smell us,” Appel told “Today.”
By late October — nearly hurricane season in the South Pacific — the food had run down to the last rations. They had by now spent nearly six months on the Sea Nymph, and it seemed less and less likely that they could do so for much longer.
But come Wednesday, she knew: The U.S. Navy had heard her distress call. Appel recalled shaking as the gray hull of the USS Ashland grew in the distance. Appel and Fuiava would spend nearly another week at sea — but they were no longer adrift, and no longer scared and alone.
First of all, thank God these ladies were able to hang on long enough to be rescued. Surviving shark attacks, waves, and each other for six months straight is incredible. Much more than I could handle. I’d last about a week before I hurled myself overboard. It has nothing to do with my resilience or will to live, I would just truly rather die than be stuck on a boat for five months. The crew would be better off without me. Not only would my sunburn render me useless after an hour and a half, I’d be such a prick after the first week of rations they’d want to kill me. If I don’t eat something substantial every three hours I get hangry and start lashing out. Oatmeal is great for like two meals but that wouldn’t be able to hold me over. Which would do nothing for my morale. “Pat help me fix the water purifier. We’re going to die if we can’t get it working.” “Nah, I’m good.” Then there’s the barking dogs, the bathroom situation, the boredom. Nightmare city.
These ladies are the ultimate hardos. That or the dumbest sailors on the face of the earth. Imagine surviving the initial storm, finding out your mast is damaged, seeing an island and instead of stopping, opt to keep going. What are you trying to prove?!?!? A few weeks later you’re out at sea and a rogue wave takes out your engine. Then right after that a pack of hungry sharks starts ramming the hull of your boat because they can hear you breathing. All because you wanted to prove “you could do it.” Unreal. They were actually able to capture a reaction from inside the boat the moment they realized they fucked up.
Fascinating stuff. Although for me, the most frustrating part would be seeing ships in the distance knowing they can’t see you. That and going number two over the side of the boat. My legs are too weak to hold a squat for that long. It’d probably cling to the hull too. Yuck.
It’s stories like these that remind me why I don’t go sailing. Too much risk, not enough reward. Credit to the ladies though, they were prepared. They also looked fantastic: well fed, strong, happy. You’d expect someone who’s spent a half a year at sea to be emaciated and gross but they weren’t. They actually seemed strangely unaffected by their ordeal. Morale was high, they were smiling- very bizarre. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made the whole thing.