Two women rescued after five months adrift...

phiwum said:
I'm not saying that these sailors were lying. They seem to have exaggerated their predicament and still not used the EPIRB, which is odd at best. At this point, I'm willing to guess that incompetence explains their choices, but as a casual day sailor, I'm willing to be proved wrong. (I don't even own an EPIRB, since I don't leave populated areas where a radio suffices.)
Click to expand...
She says that they always knew where they were in the ocean and they still had food supply. She says she knew that they would eventually drift to land. The implication is that they did not require an emergency rescue and they knew that. That's her explanation for not using the EPIRB. They were content to just drift and wait.
 
quadraginta said:
There is no reason to think that they would have improperly installed or reinforced the the mounts for the mast spreader on this one boat.

And the point is somewhat moot anyway, since even with a damaged spreader the boat would have been able to sail. Just under limited conditions.
Click to expand...

1. Of course, we have no way of knowing if one or more spreaders have been replaced/repaired or even if the main mast has been replaced in the 38 years since the vessel was built.

2. You are reading too much into my post. I was simply answering Bob001 regarding whether or not an incorrectly installed spreader would be easy to detect on inspection. I effectively said "yes and no" and gave two possible scenarios, one that would be easily detectable, and one not.
 
Last edited:
phiwum said:
I don't need a license to use my marine radio. I can't imagine that I'd need a license for an EPIRB.

Perhaps I would face a fine for signaling it when not in danger, but surely a boat adrift could make the case that they were in danger.

I'm not saying that these sailors were lying. They seem to have exaggerated their predicament and still not used the EPIRB, which is odd at best. At this point, I'm willing to guess that incompetence explains their choices, but as a casual day sailor, I'm willing to be proved wrong. (I don't even own an EPIRB, since I don't leave populated areas where a radio suffices.)
Click to expand...

Looks like the fine people over on Sailing Anarchy have "scored" an interview with Appel for a Friday podcast.

http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/in...lors-and-dogs-rescued-after-5-months/&page=17 **

**some of the photos, while pixelated, may be considered NSFW.
 
William Parcher said:
She says that they always knew where they were in the ocean and they still had food supply. She says she knew that they would eventually drift to land. The implication is that they did not require an emergency rescue and they knew that. That's her explanation for not using the EPIRB. They were content to just drift and wait.
Click to expand...

Being in the middle of an ocean with no propulsion and no other way of contacting authorities is a sufficient emergency to trigger an EPIRB no matter how much food was available. The idea of "well we will just wait months until we drift into land" is absurd. Without steerage one is is desperate shape. First of all- what if another storm hits? You have to be able to steer the boat or you will be broached or rolled. Second- land is very dangerous to a boat- perhaps you might drift close enough to someone who can pick up your VHF radio signals, but you also may drift onto reefs, or rocks, or even a nice sandy beach that will rip your boat apart in the surf.

It is an interesting story but so weird that it doesn't really fit together. Something is odd, I just can't be certain what.
 
Giordano said:
Being in the middle of an ocean with no propulsion and no other way of contacting authorities is a sufficient emergency to trigger an EPIRB no matter how much food was available. The idea of "well we will just wait months until we drift into land" is absurd. Without steerage one is is desperate shape. First of all- what if another storm hits? You have to be able to steer the boat or you will be broached or rolled. Second- land is very dangerous to a boat- perhaps you might drift close enough to someone who can pick up your VHF radio signals, but you also may drift onto reefs, or rocks, or even a nice sandy beach that will rip your boat apart in the surf.

It is an interesting story but so weird that it doesn't really fit together. Something is odd, I just can't be certain what.
Click to expand...

Ah, from the comments from the link below, this is explained:


Elagabalus said:
Looks like the fine people over on Sailing Anarchy have "scored" an interview with Appel for a Friday podcast.

http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/in...lors-and-dogs-rescued-after-5-months/&page=17 **

**some of the photos, while pixelated, may be considered NSFW.
Click to expand...

From that

In her defence she was worried about the ramifications of an EPIRB that had been modified to resemble the BoneRanger, was AC and DC powered, was stuck insitu and where a gerbil was then employed to recover it, but it unfortunately died before they could light a match and extract it and all in the absence of anyone on board who answered to the name of Kinky Farnham. Very complex law involved.
Click to expand...

I understand her reluctance to use it now
 
We have no evidence that the boat couldn't be steered or sailed. Appel chose not to launch the EPIRB. For that we do have evidence.

I have my own theories about what happened and at the base of it is Appel lying and exaggerating to Fuiava throughout the journey.
 
Elagabalus said:
Looks like the fine people over on Sailing Anarchy have "scored" an interview with Appel for a Friday podcast.
Click to expand...
It's like interviewing people who have claimed to witness or experience the paranormal. You aren't going to get them to admit or concede that it wasn't what they say it was. They will double and triple down on everything. They also don't care if the story changes with each telling.
 
William Parcher said:
We have no evidence that the boat couldn't be steered or sailed. Appel chose not to launch the EPIRB. For that we do have evidence.

I have my own theories about what happened and at the base of it is Appel lying and exaggerating to Fuiava throughout the journey.
Click to expand...

Still going with the "Two Hot Girls on a Hot Sail Boat" theory?
 
J. Appel has now decided to "augment" her GoFundMe to get a new boat instead of going after "the media". :rolleyes:

It is in an "update" she wrote today on her GFM page. She is asking for $50K but after four days she still has only one donation, for $5.

The comments there are fun to read, but the Sailing Anarchy thread (there are 2 now) are more fun.......
 
http://sailinganarchy.libsyn.com/

Link to podcast interview. 8 hours edited to a couple hours.

Discussion: http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/in...l-and-tasha-fuiava-for-the-sa-podcast/&page=4

And a quote fomr the discussion:


"Listening to this is heavy going. Ms Appel, and "straight answer", do not exist simultaneously, nor apparently do they inhabit the same universe.

At 1:03, she didn't trust her electronic chart because she'd heard that "a lawyer hit something, and it wasn't even on the chart". So she skipped trying for shelter at Christmas Island. Plus, the "station calling" guy wasn't nice. Puh-leeeeze.

She deflects anything that even hints as criticism, or plays the "well, if YOU had been with us, maybe we'd have thought of (whatever)" card..

She appears to know nothing relevant to sailing, but doesn't want to say so. So she gives a roundabout nonresponsive "answer" to a different question than was asked. " Listening to this is heavy going. Ms Appel, and "straight answer", do not exist simultaneously, nor apparently do they inhabit the same universe. "
 
Elagabalus said:
Looks like the fine people over on Sailing Anarchy have "scored" an interview with Appel for a Friday podcast.

http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/in...lors-and-dogs-rescued-after-5-months/&page=17 **

**some of the photos, while pixelated, may be considered NSFW.
Click to expand...
I tried to listen to the interview but soon shut it off because I don't like the personality of the host who did an opening monologue. There are reviews on that linked forum.

Apparently, she has said that she may be wrong and the tiger sharks might have been orcas instead. No. That is not an acceptable concession. Your boat was not attacked by an orca pod trying to knock you into the water.

She is not mistaken or dramatizing events. She is presenting fiction.
 
Argumemnon said:
Or Sperm Whales. Or Megalodons. Or a pack of Krakens.
Click to expand...

QFT. Can anyone here prove that they weren't attacked by Megalodons? ;)

I'll admit to finding this story interesting in some sort of guilty pleasure human interest way, but I've got a few questions. As someone who knows next to nothing about sailing - what is the most likely scenario of what actually happened? Did they go somewhere and just park the boat? Or did they just hang out at sea for five months? Wouldn't she have had to have some basic level of sailing expertise to even pull that off? I mean, I know I couldn't do it as a non-sailor. How hard would it be?
 
I'm thinking that the dominatrix gig didn't work out because the customers kept trying to shove the ball gag into her mouth.
 
William Parcher said:
.........Apparently, she has said that she may be wrong and the tiger sharks might have been orcas instead. .........
Click to expand...

:eek::eye-poppi What? Orcas? They're bloody great black and white things. Hard to mistake them for a tiger shark, even at night. They're a completely different shape, even if you can't make out the colouring. What utter nonsense.
 
MikeG said:
:eek::eye-poppi What? Orcas? They're bloody great black and white things. Hard to mistake them for a tiger shark, even at night. They're a completely different shape, even if you can't make out the colouring. What utter nonsense.
Click to expand...

No, no, Orcs... it was an understandable typo.


Hey it makes as much sense and is more plausible than that - I'm sure there is documentary evidence of Orcs attacking boats on the internet

...


Indeed here is some
 
She's now posting on that forum as "BendingQtips". I think the name is a reference to what she can do with her pussy.
 
sir drinks-a-lot said:
As someone who knows next to nothing about sailing - what is the most likely scenario of what actually happened? Did they go somewhere and just park the boat?
Click to expand...

I don't know much about open water sailing either, but here is my take.

Think of some mode of travel you know a lot about. Say, taking road trips or hiking or flying or even taking the train. Now imagine a person who knows nothing about that mode of travel and is a fabulist to boot. Now that fabulist with no knowledge of that mode of travel embarks on a great voyage using that mode of travel. Imagine the confusion they would have with even the most basic concepts from how to use moleskin to making their way through TSA. Imagine how crazy and divorced form reality their stories would sound.

That is my best estimate of what happened.
 
Dr. Keith said:
I don't know much about open water sailing either, but here is my take.

Think of some mode of travel you know a lot about. Say, taking road trips or hiking or flying or even taking the train. Now imagine a person who knows nothing about that mode of travel and is a fabulist to boot. Now that fabulist with no knowledge of that mode of travel embarks on a great voyage using that mode of travel. Imagine the confusion they would have with even the most basic concepts from how to use moleskin to making their way through TSA. Imagine how crazy and divorced form reality their stories would sound.

That is my best estimate of what happened.
Click to expand...

Alternatively, reincarnation is real, and she's Jonah.
 
Dr. Keith said:
I don't know much about open water sailing either, but here is my take.

Think of some mode of travel you know a lot about. Say, taking road trips or hiking or flying or even taking the train. Now imagine a person who knows nothing about that mode of travel and is a fabulist to boot. Now that fabulist with no knowledge of that mode of travel embarks on a great voyage using that mode of travel. Imagine the confusion they would have with even the most basic concepts from how to use moleskin to making their way through TSA. Imagine how crazy and divorced form reality their stories would sound.

That is my best estimate of what happened.
Click to expand...

It is my understanding that one of the women in the OP was actually a moderately experienced "coastal" and bay sailor- sailing relatively locally in and out of harbors. So she certainly had more than the most basic concepts about sailing medium sized boats. She did not however have deep water experience and it amazes me that she would embark on a trans-oceanic trip as a skipper with only one other, totally inexperienced companion prior to having obtained extensive experience herself as a crew on similar voyages. But some people have done just this and a surprising number have survived and finally reached their destinations. And they tell only a few tall stories to get free beers.

She certainly may be a fabulist who dramatically enhanced or invented her actual experiences, but her overall knowledge base was not itself completely made up: she did do previous coastal sailing. And she was able to get the boat from Hawaii to where they were "rescued." Which makes this story so odd. Taken one by one I might be willing to accept her explanations of the individual problems and incidents that she claims took place on her trip. Perhaps these individual explanations are based on the knowledge she acquired from her prior sailing experience. A busted spreader is possible. Water damaged electronics are possible. But when one combines these individual explanations into a whole her story becomes increasingly hard to fathom and IMHO increasing implausible.

However I must say that I have yet to even begin to puzzle out what might have really happened. Or what her goals truly were and are.
 
Giordano said:
It is my understanding that one of the women in the OP was actually a moderately experienced "coastal" and bay sailor- sailing relatively locally in and out of harbors. So she certainly had more than the most basic concepts about sailing medium sized boats. She did not however have deep water experience and it amazes me that she would embark on a trans-oceanic trip as a skipper with only one other, totally inexperienced companion prior to having obtained extensive experience herself as a crew on similar voyages. But some people have done just this and a surprising number have survived and finally reached their destinations. And they tell only a few tall stories to get free beers.
.....
Click to expand...

I'm not a sailor. Once the water is too deep to stand up in, it's all the same to me. But is the actual process of ocean sailing dramatically different from coastal sailing? The mechanical aspects of operating and repairing the boat are going to be the same. Electronics, and even pre-electronic gadgets like compasses and sextants, will tell you where you are and where you need to go. Bad weather can come up anywhere. What would an experienced coastal sailor need to learn about the open ocean?
 
Bob001 said:
What would an experienced coastal sailor need to learn about the open ocean?
Click to expand...

How to navigate, out of sight of land.

How to consistently not make mistakes, over several days or weeks, out of sight of land. That's probably the biggest one right there. Know how to sail well enough that you can go indefinitely without making a mistake that will end up killing you. Too many bad decisions in a row. One bad decision at the wrong time. In sight of land, you'll never be lost, and most places there's immediate assistance just a radio call away. Coast guard, other day sailors... Alone in the open ocean, all you have to save you is your own skill and judgement.
 
Bob001 said:
What would an experienced coastal sailor need to learn about the open ocean?
Click to expand...

In addition to theprestige's answer, I'd say the ability to do small repairs on the spot, or to improvise repairs - like fixing a breaker that's bent out of position. :rolleyes: - on a sailing boat.

(not a sailor myself either).
 
Giordano said:
She certainly may be a fabulist who dramatically enhanced or invented her actual experiences, but . . .
Click to expand...

I settled on "fabulist" as the closest approximation to what I really think of her mental capabilities and facilities. It is not sufficient, though. She appears to not be grounded in reality while simultaneously lacking in logical thought processes. Adding the stress of the voyage left her so far out of her depth that I don't think she can even be a reliable witness to her own thoughts or actions.

I feel sorry for the other woman and the dogs.
 
dasmiller said:
Would her confabulating make more sense (if being no more accurate) if, perhaps, there were more than 2 people on that boat when the voyage started?
Click to expand...

Or if there were more illicit drugs on the boat when the the voyage started?
 
Dr. Keith said:
Adding the stress of the voyage left her so far out of her depth that
Click to expand...
I don't think the voyage was stressful for Appel. I think she fabricated the stresses.

I don't think she can even be a reliable witness to her own thoughts or actions.
Click to expand...
Agreed. Any established facts about the voyage are going to have to come from independent sources and not from her.

feel sorry for the other woman and the dogs.
Click to expand...
Tasha doesn't seem to be even slightly resentful about being on that boat. She appears to be a content and willing partner in whatever happened. It's a weird thing though. She had a job and apartment in Hawaii and then just left for 5-6 months on a boat knowing she would be gone for that long. Did she choose the vagabond option and to roll the dice on a brand new life? Or, did all of her bases in Hawaii just say, "ok, see you when you come back and your job and apartment will be waiting for you"?
 
Last edited:
Dr. Keith said:
I settled on "fabulist" as the closest approximation to what I really think of her mental capabilities and facilities. It is not sufficient, though. She appears to not be grounded in reality while simultaneously lacking in logical thought processes. Adding the stress of the voyage left her so far out of her depth that I don't think she can even be a reliable witness to her own thoughts or actions.

I feel sorry for the other woman and the dogs.
Click to expand...

I can see that POV. But...I have a completely different take on it.

I think Appel is a fine sailor. I think she left somewhere, and arrived in Hawaii in fine time -no stress, no problems, no pain or worries.

But, now, she's stuck. She wants the world to stop questioning her sailing skills, as she knows they're good; but keep their eyes off of the bigger picture. The real issue is: where were they before, what were they doing, and why did they feel they had to tell all these lies to hide the truth?

It might well be there was another person aboard, who...vanished. Or maybe there were drugs or other illegal items. Or maybe they witnessed something they shouldn't have, and are terrified of someone making the connection.

Whatever the truth, the stories are just going to keep getting taller -and, IMO, funnier with time. The facts may never be known, but these women should be professional storytellers.
 
Bob001 said:
I'm not a sailor. Once the water is too deep to stand up in, it's all the same to me. But is the actual process of ocean sailing dramatically different from coastal sailing? The mechanical aspects of operating and repairing the boat are going to be the same. Electronics, and even pre-electronic gadgets like compasses and sextants, will tell you where you are and where you need to go. Bad weather can come up anywhere. What would an experienced coastal sailor need to learn about the open ocean?
Click to expand...
In some ways, blue water sailing is safer because most accidents occur where water meets land. But that doesn't offset the wise words from theprestige and ddt.

As for sailing conditions... Get a bad weather report close to shore, head for harbor. (More likely, you don't even go sailing that day.) Sailing blue water, you've got to deal with whatever comes. Being in a major storm in the middle of an ocean is an awesome and humbling experience.
 
Noztradamus said:
Are you looking at a Flight 571 Scenario here?
Click to expand...

I think if they did tell such a story, it would just be another lie.

At this point, they could just stand up & tell the truth, and it would be discounted as another tall tale, unless some actual evidence comes forth to go with it.
 
Noztradamus said:
Are you looking at a Flight 571 Scenario here?
Click to expand...

Hadn't thought of that. I was thinking more along the lines of another initial crew member who had some fatal falling-out.

It's morbid fun to speculate about, say, some smuggler hiring the boat, and accidentally going overboard after being hit several times with some heavy object, but without any supporting facts, it's just baseless speculation.

It's a pity that the boat had to be abandoned at sea. If it had sailed (or been towed) to a harbor, it could be checked out.

Just bad luck, i guess.
 
William Parcher said:
.....
Or, did all of her bases in Hawaii just say, "ok, see you when you come back and your job and apartment will be waiting for you"?
Click to expand...

What was her work? If she did temp jobs or some kind of contract work, she might well have been able to take off and plan to pick it up when she returned. And if she paid her rent in advance, or arranged a monthly draw from a bank account, the landlord would hold her apartment for her because it would never stop being hers. There are people who routinely travel for months at a time.
 
DragonLady said:
....
I think Appel is a fine sailor. I think she left somewhere, and arrived in Hawaii in fine time -no stress, no problems, no pain or worries.
Click to expand...


She started in Hawaii, headed for Tahiti and got picked up south of Japan, right?

DragonLady said:
It might well be there was another person aboard, who...vanished. Or maybe there were drugs or other illegal items. Or maybe they witnessed something they shouldn't have, and are terrified of someone making the connection.
....
Click to expand...


That seems like quite a stretch. That third party would have had no reason to conceal him/herself before the voyage, and people around the dock would have seen him/her, not to mention that his/her friends or "business" associates would now be wondering what happened.
 
Bob001 said:
What was her work? If she did temp jobs or some kind of contract work, she might well have been able to take off and plan to pick it up when she returned. And if she paid her rent in advance, or arranged a monthly draw from a bank account, the landlord would hold her apartment for her because it would never stop being hers. There are people who routinely travel for months at a time.
Click to expand...
It's reported that she is a security guard at a marina community. I think it's the same one where Appel was keeping her boat and that's how they met. Fuiava is Samoan and moved to Hawaii in the past few years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom