Navy rescues women lost at sea since May

After almost five months lost at sea, two women and their dogs were rescued by a U.S. Navy ship 900 miles southeast of Japan.

The women set sail from Hawaii in late May, bound for Tahiti, the Navy said in a statement Thursday. They lost their engine in a bad storm and thought they could use their sails to make it to Tahiti. They veered off course, and their distress calls were never picked up because they were never close to any vessels and too far out for the signals to reach land. On Tuesday, a Taiwanese fishing boat saw the women and notified the Coast Guard, with the USS Ashland arriving the next day.

The women, Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiaba of Honolulu, said they survived because they had a water purifier and brought enough food, including oatmeal and pasta, to last a year. "They saved our lives," Appel said. "The pride and smiles we had when we saw [the Navy] on the horizon was pure relief."

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