US sailors rescued after five months adrift in Pacific

Two American sailors and their dogs have been rescued by the US Navy after drifting off course and spending months stranded in the Pacific Ocean.


Jennifer Appel, Tasha Fuiaba and the two dogs had originally set sail from their home state of Hawaii this spring.

They planned a voyage of more than 3,200km south to Tahiti aboard a small sailboat.

Their engine broke on 30 May but they thought they could carry on and make landfall using wind power.

"Two months into their journey and long past when they originally estimated they would reach Tahiti, they began to issue distress calls," the US Navy's Pacific-based Seventh Fleet said in a statement.

"The two continued the calls daily, but they were not close enough to other vessels or shore stations to receive them."

Then on 24 October, a Taiwanese fishing vessel finally discovered the boat about 900 miles southeast of Japan.
  [rte.ie]
27/10/17
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