Two female US mariners and their dogs, stranded at sea for more than five months, were rescued on Wednesday (25 October) by a US Navy ship near Japan. Jennifer Appel, 48, and her friend Tasha Fuiava, both from Honolulu, had set off from Oahu — an island in Hawaii — for Tahiti in French Polynesia on 3 May, but encountered problems while sailing and got lost.