Sailors rescued after months adrift had EPIRB - Page 2

VincentVega · 11-01-2017, 05:46 AM

Crazy story, doesnt make any sense. My guess is this is either a stunt for publicity or a typical case of in over your head sea story. There are more than a few folks with youtube video blogs sailing all over the world. Lots of cool scenery, fair winds, cold drinks... its sucks you in.

I was out last weekend helping a friend move his boat to storage for winter. Sailing along in mid - high teens then a blast in the mid 20's... Then it stayed in the low to mid 20's, we got up to ~9.25kts. What a blast. As I mentioned on the boat, sailing is sometimes hours of boredom interrupted by moments of terror. I love it but you have to know what you are getting into.

Seahawk · 11-01-2017, 06:17 AM

In my best Columbo:

Unless she was coloring her hair during the four months, me thinks she'd have much darker roots.

LWJ · 11-01-2017, 06:27 AM

Funny. I play with a little sailboat. I thought it very strange too. I checked out a sailing forum and those folks blast them. I vote that they want to write a book or similar.

Attached by tiger sharks twice? WTF?

KFC911 · 11-01-2017, 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LWJ

Funny. I play with a little sailboat. I thought it very strange too. I checked out a sailing forum and those folks blast them. I vote that they want to write a book or similar.

Attached by tiger sharks twice? WTF?

Yep, yep, yep...

Sunroof · 11-01-2017, 07:02 AM

From the article: "So yeah we were really relieved that you guys were here, but Nymphy was our baby," Fuiava said, starting to cry. "She's strong and we have the bilge on, and we're just hoping to get her back."

I believe she meant to say bilge PUMP if the vessel was taking on water! And unless they had unlimited power from a solar panel or wind generator the pump would not stay on long. Where was the dinghy or life raft on deck? When the Navy announced that the vessel was "not seaworthy" I have to question, what made it "unseaworthy"? From the few photos I saw, the hull looked good, the standing rigging intact and the vessel was not listing from water onboard. Maybe it was a sanitation issue onboard that it was not fit for human habitation (food waste, excrement, garbage, etc.). The sharks probably wanted those dogs!!

I guess we have to look for the upcoming book or documentary to really determined what happened, BUT five months at sea adrift? Please!! The first sign of danger any prudent mariner knows is to hit that EPIRB button!!

sc_rufctr · 11-01-2017, 07:07 AM

How did they carry enough food & water for 5 months on that boat?

bkreigsr · 11-01-2017, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Wilson

I suddenly have an urge for clams or tuna.

.....and a pressure washer with a 55 gal drum of Summer's Eve.

wdfifteen · wdfifteen's Garage

I agree there is something fishy about this story. They went out for an 18 day float with 5 months worth of food on board?

gatotom · 11-01-2017, 08:03 AM

the wizard of oz is more believable

flipper35 · flipper35's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by cashflyer

How long ago was it that Jennifer transitioned from being a man?

I am not sure that transition is complete yet. When I saw the pics I thought they were both dudes.

11-01-2017, 08:23 AM

What is that godam smell?

Tobra · Tobra's Garage

You know the difference between a fairy tale and a sea story. Fairy tale starts out "Once upon a time," sea story starts out "This is no BS."

This one is a sea story

widebody911 · widebody911's Garage

The problem is obvious: they didn't have any seamen

sammyg2 · 11-01-2017, 09:49 AM

Hawaii women's tale of survival at sea unraveling as more evidence disputes claims

Two Hawaii women’s tale of survival in the Pacific Ocean appeared to be sinking Wednesday as more Coast Guard officials, sailing experts and scientists emerged to poke holes in the sensational story.

Among the claims that have been cast into doubt are a tiger shark attack that allegedly lasted more than six hours and a call one of the women’s mothers made to the Coast Guard, in addition to doubts about the condition of their ship before setting off on the voyage.

"I'm shocked they were going to Tahiti," Desiree Hattori, who has known one of the women, Jennifer Appel, for years, told Hawaii News Now. "Her boat wasn't in the best shape."

They were picked up by the U.S. Navy near Japan last week after being spotted and towed by a Taiwanese fishing vessel.

Appel and Tasha Fuiava’s description of 20- to 30-foot tiger sharks ramming their boat in a coordinated attack for more than six hours also appeared to draw scrutiny, as scientists who study sharks told The Associated Press that sort of behavior has never been recorded and that tiger sharks grow to only about 17 feet in length.

University of Hawaii professor and veteran shark researcher Kim Holland has never heard of any kind of shark repeatedly attacking a boat hull throughout a night. He also said tiger sharks never jump out of the water and do not make coordinated attacks.

Sometimes sharks will congregate around a food source like a whale carcass, but Holland said that was unlikely in this case "if there's nothing there to attract the animals. I mean this is just an inert boat hull."

At some point, Appel joined the Hawai'i Actors Network, noting on the group's website that she has "been known to do almost any skydiving or motorcycle stunt — camera optional." Through the group, she found work as an extra in the former TV series "Off the Map" and the former sitcom "Cougar Town," appearing in that show in a pink bikini in the background of a season finale. A call to the actors' network by The Associated Press was not returned.

Appel's mother, Joyce, also told The Associated Press she called the Coast Guard to report her daughter missing a week and a half after they departed for what they believed would be an 18-day trip to Tahiti.

Sailors help Zeus, one of two dogs who were accompanying two mariners who were aided by the amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jonathan Clay)

However, the Coast Guard never got a call from the elder Appel. They received a call from a "family friend" they identified as a male on May 19, still several days before the women expected to arrive.

The women said they filed a float plan listing their course and other details with some friends and relatives. However, in an interview with the Coast Guard, the women said they had filed no float plan.

Hawaii sailing experts say the trip itself was a bad idea.

Mike Michelwait, owner of the Honolulu Sailing Company, a sailing school and charter company, has sailed the route from Hawaii to Tahiti several times. He said the trip would normally take about 17 days with sailors who could stay on course.

But, Michelwait said, he would not take such a trip with any less than three experienced sailors.

"There's only two of them on board, and it's a 50-foot boat," he said. "That's a lot of boat to handle."

Coast Guard officials told The Associated Press on Monday that the two women had an emergency beacon (EPIRB), but never turned it on because they did not fear for their lives. If they had, rescue would have been headed their way in a matter of minutes.

The women said Tuesday that they did not use the beacon because they never felt they were in immediate danger, yet they have been quoted as saying they did not think they would survive another day. Furthermore, the pair said they had been flagging vessels and sending distress signals for at least 98 days.

"We knew we weren't going to make it," Appel said. "So that's when we started making distress calls."

A Fox News reader with a connection to Appel's family provided email correspondence with Coast Guard officials based in Hawaii, who said that on May 5, Appel reported she lost her satellite phone.

“Since Jennifer is well equipped with emergency equipment we are confident that if she ran into a distress situation she would activate her EPIRB and we would get the notification quickly,” the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu wrote to the reader in a May 19 email.

The two women also insisted they got caught in a storm that was whipping up 30-foot waves and near hurricane-force winds on the night they set sail, despite records that show no severe weather in the area at the time.

NASA satellite images for the days around their departure show no organized storms in the region where they planned to travel.

There was a tropical cyclone, but it was near Fiji, thousands of miles west of Hawaii. Localized squalls are known to pop up, but a storm lasting three days would have been visible on satellite and would have elicited mass warnings to the public to brace for the weather.

"We got into a Force 11 storm, and it lasted for two nights and three days," Appel said Tuesday.