A profane bluewater sailor with a blog called unreasonablydangerousonionrings about stupid people has analyzed events leading up the recent rescue of Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava after five months adrift in the Pacific.
What follows are some highlights from that blog. Click the link above if you want a fuller exposition of this blogger’s thinking:
“They left Hawaii in May. They were rescued five months later by the Navy.
“That’s it. That’s the only portion of their story that has even a shred of credibility to it. Now, I’m not going to speculate as to their motives yet, but I will point out that the world of open-water sailing is an obscure one to most people. I am one of a small minority to have spent a lot of time sailing on the open ocean, out of sight of land for months at a time. So I don’t blame journalists for not catching these things at first sight. But that’s why I’m here to explain them to you…
“These women were able to survive because they had vast stores of dry food on board —mainly oatmeal, pasta, and rice. I’m going to assume that they’re giving an incomplete picture of what they ate, because if that’s all they had they would have died…
“Take a look at these women. These are not women who are struggling to survive. They have not been dehydrated, or even operating at a caloric deficit, for five months…
“The absolute worst case scenario, even if the month of May went as badly as they say it did (which is impossible), is that they turn on their EPIRB after the hurricane (that didn’t exist) hit them on May 30 (which it didn’t), and they’re home before Mother’s Day. There is absolutely no reason for their summer to have unfolded as it did. As the Denver Post put it, ‘Key elements of the women’s account are contradicted by authorities, and are not consistent with weather reports or basic geography of the Pacific Ocean…’
Repeatedly, Appel mentions being in “a tiger shark location.” The phrase “shark-infested” has been thrown around. Tiger sharks are coastal animals, but you know what? I’ll grant that maybe there were sharks out there. That’s when it gets ridiculous…This is such utter and complete nonsense that I hardly know where to begin…”
