They had plenty of groceries, water purification. Maybe a good library.
It was a vacation! Yet, they seemed happy to see the Coast Guard.
It is confusing.
The only motivation for a hoax that comes to mind would be to get their names spread all over the media for the requisite 15 minutes, which seems to have worked.
In any case, in answer to Chronos, it turns out that the vessel was supposed to sail south from Oahu to the Marquesas Islands, was last heard from on May 3, was reported missing on May 19, and the US Coast Guard was on the lookout for them by early June, though the article does not mention whether active search efforts were made.
Whether those facts are consistent with an elaborate hoax, or tilt the balance towards the simpler yet incredible explanation that someone could be that incompetent (yet compare this misadventure), I leave you to judge.
ETA I too find the ludicrous haul of food, along with the conspicuous absence of useful and critical gear, puzzling.
And, though they looked so hale and hearty, one of the women said, “I’m sure we’d be dead in 24 hours!” What? Even if they ran out of food and water at that moment (which nothing seems to indicate they did), everyone, including the dogs, looked like they could’ve lasted another several weeks out there. It smells fishy to me, too.
StG
There are some areas of low winds between Hawaii and Tahiti, but once they abandoned that idea they could have picked up the trade winds south of Hawaii to head for Asia.
I would think that any halfway competent sailor (or even any moderately handy person) could have jury-rigged something that would have enabled them to do better than just drifting for months on end.
I agree that they seem to have had no idea of what they were doing. (That goes for their reaction to the sharks as well.) But they were more along the lines of “just missed a Darwin’s Award” than suicidal.
‘I’ve never sailed’: women rescued at sea admit they weren’t properly prepared
*Although the US Navy declared the Sea Nymph no longer seaworthy, Appel said she hoped to eventually recover it and perhaps take it out again.
“Well, you got to die sometime,” Appel said. “You may as well be doing something you enjoy when you’re doing it, right?”*
:smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack::smack:
I don’t find it strange that one was a novice, given that the other “has been sailing the Hawaiian islands for a decade”. They were in what looks like an adequate boat, and should have been able to complete the planned voyage in 2 to 3 weeks.
But her actual expertise is questionable if she couldn’t deal with what looks like a fairly minor rigging issue (mast spreader), couldn’t arrange some sort of jury rig, couldn’t fix a motor that got flooded with water, failed to take proper communication equipment, etc. To give credit where due, they did manage to fix their water purifier - without which they would probably not have survived.
I was amused by this:
Yes - you’ll find that dogs have a good appetite for all sorts of things when the alternative is starvation.
I think it would be reasonable if she were told that before she sets off on another long voyage she must reimburse the US Navy for the cost of her rescue.
I’m glad to read this. Yesterday as I was driving home, I was listening to NPR, and there were the requisite stories about the Senate being up to something idiotic. Then the announcer stumbled over a story introduction, paused, and said something like,
Most of the story is paraphrased, but it really had no more detail than what I gave. That last line is almost verbatim.
Then there were maybe fifteen seconds of radio silence, during which, second by second, my baffled cackling grew louder and louder.
Then the announcer went on to some other story about like North Korea or something, no segueway. I can only imagine he was thinking, “What the fuck WAS that story? Is this a hoax?” Because that’s what I was thinking.
The absence of [del]sense[/del] critical gear does need a bit more explaining, but they did explain the huge food stock- the Hawaii-Tahiti sail was only supposed to be part 1 of the trip, they were then ‘planning’ on visiting more islands, over several months.
Bringing enough food for the whole trip seems fair enough to me, given that they had the space, and they were presumably intending to stay on some pretty small islands where canned food may be imported, expensive and with a poor choice.
Pleasing to see the expression used in its original context.
There’s a big difference between “sailing the islands”, where you never lose sight of land for one thing, and sailing out in the open ocean.
From the picture it looks like a ~45 ft boat, which is a reasonable size. As Iggy says, it’s really hard to tell from the photo what damage there is to the mast or to any of the spreaders or stays.
I have to agree with some other posters that this was likely intentional. Do not underestimate the desire that some people have to be noticed and to profit from notoriety. I’m quite sure we will see a book about this shortly.
People sail these types of crafts across similar stretches of the ocean on a regular basis. The types of emergency equipment that should be taken along and the planning required are well-known, easily available, and well-understood.
One of the things that has struck me in reading the articles is that I don’t see anything about fishing for food. “Oatmeal and pasta” sustained them. This may be true, but it is (IMHO) a bit odd. Does anyone know if they are committed vegans?
Given how much of their 90%-depleted supplies were fed to those healthy-looking dogs, Korean barbecue must have been on the menu at some stage if they were not rescued.
This seems likely to me too.
Their sailing vessel should be re-christened, “Attention Seeker”.
Well blow me down!:smack:
I also found these quotes interesting:
A 45-foot boat that is reasonably constructed should be under no threat of being stove in by being rammed by a single tiger shark. If your boat’s hull is “lucky” to survive ramming by a tiger shark, you shouldn’t be far out at sea in it.
Appel says she had been sailing around Hawaii “for a decade,” but I would imagine this didn’t involve trips of more than a few days. Also, considering her apparent lack of competence I have to wonder to what extent she actually was in charge of a boat vs being a passenger or crew.
I think MST3K’s Gorgo/Edmund Fitzgerald sea chantey put it best:
“They pulled into port,
Everyone was okay,
They had a light lunch and felt better…”
Twits.
Book deal.
They might get a book deal, but I don’t see the risk they took with their lives as having been worth it, as well as the expense of losing their boat. If this had been planned, they surely would have taken precautions so they wouldn’t lose the boat.
If it were a hoax, surely they could have made it a more interesting story. As it is it’s just a story of two dodos drifting around for five months. They could have made it into a more gripping story of survival if they had planned it.
These people appear to have been genuinely incompetent. I don’t think any further explanation is needed to explain what happened to them. It would be more suspicious if this had happened to people with more experience.
Never underestimate the role of stupidity in any human endeavor.
I wonder if these two are believers in some kind of “The Secret” philosophy. “Jump, and the net will appear”-types.
“I’d like to sail the ocean!”
“Ooh, sounds keen! Let’s do it!”
“Woof!”
Of course, the rescue just proves the whole “net appearing” thing.
Like I said, twits.
Yes. And “sailing the Hawaiian islands for a decade” could imply anything from several hours a day several days a week to a few times a year. If the former, you’d expect she’d have met a good number of long-distance sailors and picked up more sailing savvy than appears to be the case.
The Grauniad article linked by JustinC says 50 ft.