HONOLULU (AP) – Trapped on a storm-battered boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for months, Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava were just about out of food and beginning to believe they were completely out of luck when they finally saw it: A US Navy ship chugging toward them.
“When I saw the gray ship on the horizon, I was just shaking,” Appel told reporters Friday. “I was ready to cry, I was so happy. I knew we were going to live.”
On Wednesday the pair, followed by their dogs, Zeus and Valentine, boarded the USS Ashland, all four looking remarkably fit for having been lost at sea for nearly six months.
They had been drifting aimlessly across the Pacific since the end of May and had sent out unanswered distress calls for 98 consecutive days before crew members aboard a passing Taiwanese fishing boat saw them on Tuesday and notified the Navy.
