What? I have no idea what you are suggesting.
Remember, the one thing we have established is that these people are severely incompetent. Any kind of complex plan is going to be beyond them.
Not that I’m saying that this happened, but it wouldn’t necessarily have to be an uninhabited island, just an island where the person/people they were staying with haven’t spoken up.
I think “Peter Rows” lengthy comment to the angry blogger’s post linked to earlier is thought provoking. Basically he says that people easily go more or less mad on the sea, and list numerous examples. Perhaps the women set out and obviously wasn’t up to the task, were on the seas for months and like many others have, more or less lost the minds, or at least contact with reality, where fantasies become as real as reality. Perhaps they think they had been in tremendous storms, attacked by gigantic sharks, and so on and so forth. And also started to make lots of irrational decisions they wouldn’t normally do, which according to the commenter is common when isolated on the sea. Perhaps they simply lost it after a while.
When they are finally rescued, they tell of the fantastic journey unaware that it is not actually what has happened; it’s part real part fantasy. But then, if they come to realise that hell, what we thought was true cannot really have happened - but then it is too late to back out of it. So they start to change their story to align with the real world, perhaps still unsure what they are supposed to say to keep their faces. Because now all of a sudden everything they say is scrutinized, so perhaps they are simply scared to look dumb, stupid and/or mad. And who wants to do that in front of all the cameras?
Something along those lines, perhaps…? At least as plausbile as any other theory so far, at this point.
Not to mention the tiger that wound up on the boat…
Thanks to the posters who put up the pics of the boats that had the same type of growth on them. I think it is great that someone can produce verification that this type of growth is at least possible. I fear this story will die out without a definitive answer to the many questions still out.
That’s an excellent point. When Jason returned home with the Golden Fleece he told some real whoppers.
It still requires Appel to know about the island and to be able to navigate there. There’s no evidence she had such capabilities. And how did Appel originally make contact with these people? She apparently hasn’t been away from Hawaii.
No matter how you slice it, they had to have been at sea for over a month to get from Hawaii to where they were picked up, and over two months if the contact with the Coast Guard near Tahiti is verified.
It’s about 1000 miles of empty ocean between where they were picked up and the nearest land they could possibly have come from, at Wake Island (which has a military base) or the Marshall Islands. The bottom line is that the “holed up on an island somewhere” doesn’t really gain that much as an explanation. They still would have a long way to go to get where they were picked up.
I don’t think Appel was wound too tight before the voyage, and Fuiava had to be pretty flaky to go with her on a week’s acquaintance. (But Appel has done almost all the talking so far.) If the voyage drove Appel crazy, I think it was a short trip.
If you look at the interviews, Appel doesn’t show any sign of evasiveness or of making an effort to stick to some concocted narrative. She just blurts out whatever comes into her head. When it’s pointed out that what she says makes no sense, she concocts some rationalization that may make even less sense. No matter how ridiculous the story, it appears that Appel in her own mind believes it to be true, at least at that moment.
You’re really loving this [del]train[/del] boat wreck, eh Colibri? 
I find it fascinating especially because of the wackiness of the story. Also, I’ve spent some time in the Pacific. I’ve also spent time on small boats (mostly motor rather than sail) and camping on uninhabited islands.
I’m equally fascinated. Everything about this story goes against my every instinct and intuition as a sailor.
The ocean, like the sky, can kill a voyager any time it wants. For whatever reason the ocean chose to let these two idjits live. That’s not quite Powerball lucky, but it’s close.
Ref Colibri’s comments about Appel’s mental state, perhaps she’s channeling Il Douche. Spouting stream of consciousness BS the speaker wishes was true seems to be working OK for him. Maybe that’ll be a new style in business and TV sitcoms and all the rest: Just keep insisting loudly until you cowe everyone in your audience into acceptance. :eek:
I’m in the middle of reading a book written by Admiral Charles Lockwood. ( Sink 'em All ) He commanded the U.S. submarine force in the Southwest Pacific theatre at the start of May, 1942, after the U.S. Asiatic Fleet retreated to Australia. He makes a comment that his submarines returned from patrol with an impressive amount of marine growth on the hulls. I guess you could say that both the crew and the ship returned to Perth fully bearded. 
*Just sit right back
And you’ll hear a tale.
A tale of a couple twits.
Who started from some tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a complete fruitcake and,
the Skipper was a boor,
two passengers set sail that day,
for a three hour tour,
a three hour tour.
The weather started getting rough,
the tiny ship was tossed.
Here’s where the story gets a little thin,
For five months they were lost.
For five months they were lost.
No sail, no lights, all vegan food
not a single luxury
like Baron Munchhausen,
it’s plausible as can be.
So join us here each week my friends,
you’re sure to get a smile,
from the latest whoppers they come up with
here on Jennifer’s Isle!*
Regards,
Shodan
Sorry.
Ha!
Thank you for this description of Appel’s responses, because I haven’t seen the interviews. But could you be more specific in how this is an argument against my suggestion that the women isolated at sea for months started to imagining things, and then believe their memories to be facts, a well known phenonema? (Though not very well presented by me.) – In fact, I think most of what you’re saying would rather support my suggestion, now that I read it again?
I don’t get it. Are you making fun of my post? It may not have been the most well written reply in SDMB history, and rereading it I would like to spend a few more minutes on it to explain what I mean.
But the main point is that if people are isolated (a cabin at winter, a boat at sea, an austronaut [I assume] in space), the mind starts to play tricks on you. Those “tricks” are experiences, and those experiences becomes memories, and then these experiences are shared. When confronted with the unplausibilty of them, they adjust on the fly as most would do.
Certainly it is a well established fact that people isolated at sea (etc) for a long period of time may go “mad” (see link in post above for examples on the sea). Isn’t a plausible thought that that is what happened here?
I’m not saying that that is what happened here, I don’t know what happened here, but I’m suggesting that that is as a plausible thought as any other theory in this thread – i.e. they are contemptuous, stupid hoaxers etc.
I was supporting your suggestion, although as I said if Appel was driven crazy it was a pretty short drive.
Here’s the extended interviews.
They looked to me like they were just jokes and not being critical of your post.
Worth noting on the comments section:
“Can I just say that I personally know one of these women, by chance not choice, and she is absolutely bat shit crazy.”
No, really? :rolleyes: