Mismatches Raise Doubt on Survival Story of Two US Women Lost at Sea for Months

A pair of female sailors from Hawaii was recently rescued from their storm-damaged sailboat some 1,400 kilometers southeast off the coast of Japan. However, it turns out there are some details that do not add up.

The US Coast Guard announced on Monday they found that Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava, who stranded in the Pacific Ocean for five months, never activated their emergency beacon. This adds to a list of inconsistences that cast doubt on the women's story.

Disabled Beacon

While the survivors were being interviews, the US Coast Guard learned that there was an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) aboard the women's yacht but it had never been turned on.

In case of danger, the device sends a signal to satellites and the boat's location to authorities. If it was on, the signal would have been received very quickly and the women would have been saved significantly sooner.

According to Appel, they didn't activate it because their lives weren't seriously threatened. Yet upon their rescue, she told NBC's TODAY news program: "I honestly believed that we were about to die within the next 24 hours."

Tropical Storm

The two sailors who set off from Oahu bound for Tahiti said that on their first day at sea, May 3, they faced a severe storm with 97 kph winds and 9-meter waves, which damaged the sailboat's engine and broke the mast. "We got into a Force 11 storm, and it lasted for two nights and three days," Appel said.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service in Honolulu and archived NASA satellite images showed that there was no tropical storm in the region during these days.

Distress Signals

In June, the Coast Guard made radio contact with the women's vessel that identified itself as the Sea Nymph near Tahiti. They said they were not in danger and planned to reach the shore the next morning. That was after Appel and Fuiava reportedly lost their engine and the mast.

Search for a harbor

According to the sailors, they wanted to dock at the islands of Maui and Lanai, but there were no harbors deep enough for their boat. The Coast Guard said there were several places with enough space to accommodate their vessel.

The women also explained why they did not sail toward Christmas Island, part of the island nation of Kiribati: Thinking it was uninhabited, they avoided landing on the island because of its harbor name — the Bay of Wrecks.

Instead of finding a harbor on one of the Hawaiian Islands, the yacht went to the island of Cook, which is located 1,500 kilometers from there.

Appel and Fuiava were rescued along with their two dogs on October 25 around 1,400 kilometers southeast of Japan. They said they survived only thanks to water purifiers and a year's worth of food aboard. According to the women, they were making daily distress calls for 98 days straight, but the calls were out of range. They also spotted other ships that did not or could not respond, and fired at least 10 flares.