Questions have emerged over the details of the account of two women who were rescued by the U.S. Navy last week after being lost at sea for more than five months.
One discrepancy appears to be that the women claim there was a storm that whipped up 30-foot waves and near hurricane-force winds on the night they set sail, but records reveal there was no severe weather in the area they planned to travel during that time, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The Coast Guard is reviewing records from the time Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava set sail in their 50-foot sailboat to travel from Hawaii to Tahiti, and NASA satellite images for the days surrounding their departure show no organized storms occurring in that region.
Appel had said she and Fuiava "got into a Force 11 storm, and it lasted for two nights and three days."
Coast Guard officials also told the AP on Monday that the duo had an emergency beacon they could have turned on at any time, and there would have been a rescue crew headed their way in a matter of minutes.
The two women did not use the beacon, however; they claim it was because they never feared for their lives, despite recounting an instance when their boat was attacked by sharks for a six-hour period. Scientists who study sharks told the AP that their account of the shark attack would be rare and "was unlikely in this case."
Appel and Fuiava said they never felt they were in immediate danger, yet they have been quoted as saying they did not think they would survive another day, the AP noted.
"We knew we weren't going to make it," Appel said. "So that's when we started making distress calls."
The distress signals went on for at least 98 days, the women claimed.
Appel's mother, Joyce, says that she called the Coast Guard to report her daughter was missing for over a week when the trip should have only taken 18 days, but the Coast Guard never got the call. The service did, however, receive a call from a "family friend," identified as a male, on May 19, several days before the women were expected to arrive at their destination in Tahiti.
Mike Michelwait, owner of the Honolulu Sailing Company, a sailing school and charter company, said that going on the trip with any less than three experienced sailors was a bad idea.
"There's only two of them on board, and it's a 50-foot boat," Michelwait said. "That's a lot of boat to handle."
Appel is a part of the Hawai'i Actors Network and noted on the group's website that she has "been known to do almost any skydiving or motorcycle stunt—camera optional."