November 6, 2017
ASIA / PACIFIC
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
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STRANDED AT SEA. Tasha Fuiava, an American mariner from Honolulu who had been sailing for five
months on a damaged sailboat, climbs the accommodation ladder to board the amphibious dock landing ship
USS Ashland after the Navy ship rescued her, Jennifer Appel, and their dogs, who were lost at sea trying to sail
from Hawai‘i to Tahiti. The U.S. Navy rescued the women after a Taiwanese fishing vessel spotted them about
900 miles southeast of Japan and alerted the U.S. Coast Guard. The women lost their engine in bad weather in
late May, but believed they could still reach Tahiti. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jonathan Clay/
U.S. Navy via AP)
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Two women rescued after being
stranded at sea for months
By Ken Moritsugu
The Associated Press
HITE BEACH NAVAL FACIL-
ITY, Japan — Two women from
Hawai‘i who were adrift on a
storm-battered sailboat in the Pacific for
months set foot on solid ground at a U.S.
Navy base in southern Japan.
The USS Ashland rescued Jennifer
Appel and Tasha Fuiava and their two
dogs about 900 miles southeast of Japan,
and brought them to America’s White
Beach Naval Facility after waiting for a
typhoon to pass.
The two women, sporting USS Ashland
knit shirts, were standing with the
commanding officer and others high on the
bridgeway as the ship docked. They later
spoke to reporters on the flight deck before
clearing customs and walking down metal
stairs to the dock.
They left Honolulu on May 3 aboard
Appel’s 50-foot vessel, the Sea Nymph, for
what was supposed to be an 18-day trip to
Tahiti. Storms flooded the engine,
destroying the starter, and damaged the
mast so badly that they couldn’t generate
enough wind power to stay on course, they
said.
The two women tried to return and at
one point in June were within 726 nautical
miles of Oahu, but couldn’t make it, Appel
said.
“We knew we weren’t going to make it,”
she said. “So that’s when we started
making distress calls. We were hoping that
one of our friends who likes to go deep sea
fishing and taking people out might have
gone past the 400-mile mark and might
have cruised near where we would be.”
The women said they drifted aimlessly
and sent unanswered distress calls for 98
consecutive days.
They were thousands of miles in the
wrong direction when a Taiwanese fishing
vessel found them. Towing the sailboat
damaged it further, but Appel said she
paddled over to the Taiwanese vessel on a
surfboard and made a mayday call. The
Ashland, which happened to be in the area
to avoid a storm, travelled 100 miles and
found them the next day, said the ship’s
W
commanding officer, Cmdr. Steven
Wasson.
The women said they ran out of food for
the dogs and began sharing their own,
leaving their food supply 90 percent
depleted by the time they were rescued.
The USS Ashland picked up the women
and the dogs, Zeus and Valentine. All four
looked remarkably fit for having been lost
at sea for nearly six months.
Appel told reporters they were
beginning to believe they were completely
out of luck until they saw the U.S. Navy
ship chugging toward them.
“When I saw the gray ship on the
horizon, I was just shaking,” she said. “I
was ready to cry, I was so happy. I knew we
were going to live.”
The Navy sent a six-person crew on a
small boat over to the sailboat. Wasson
said they determined “there were just too
many things that needed to be solidified to
make that vessel seaworthy again ... so
that’s why we brought them on board.”
His ship, which transports and deploys
amphibious landing craft, wasn’t equipped
to bring the sailboat back, so it was
abandoned at sea. The two women still
hope it will be found and they can repair it.
If not, Appel said they want to build an
“unsinkable and unbreakable boat” and
set out for Tahiti again.
“We still never got to see the 20,000
islands, so I think that would be the most
fantastic trip for May of next spring,” she
said.
Although Appel has been sailing the
Hawai‘ian islands for 10 years and spent
two years preparing for this voyage, she
acknowledged that she and Fuiava, a
novice sailor, may not have prepared as
well as they could have.
Appel earlier credited their survival in
part to the veteran sailors in Hawai‘i who
had warned them to prepare well for their
journey.
“They said pack every square inch of
your boat with food, and if you think you
need a month, pack six months, because
you have no idea what could possibly
happen out there,” she said. “And the
sailors in Honolulu really gave us good
advice. We’re here.”
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