The open ocean is not something to mess with. A manmade ship can only resist so much against the devastating power of the sea...
Working Offshore
A large group of men rallied together to head to an oil tanker offshore. The task at hand was important to get done quickly and correctly. Otherwise, the economy of the small town nearby would be destroyed...
A Regular Cook
.There was a wide variety of jobs to be performed for the duration of the trip. 29-year-old Harrison Okene took up the position of head chef. He was a decent cook and had worked at restaurants around town for most of his life. Even though he was only the chef, Harrison's life would be in peril...
Learning Fast
The tanker job paid a good amount due to its dangerous nature. Only half a day went by before the crew was faced with bad weather and rocky waves. It was quickly made clear to the chef as to why this position was available at such short notice... This is normal, he thought to himself. These men deal with weather like this all of the time.
It Was Different
Sadly, that was far from the case. The crew severely underestimated the power of the storm. Harrison went to sleep that night not knowing what was happening below deck...
Woken Up at 4:50 AM
At 4:50 AM, Harrison was woken up to freezing cold water lapping at his legs. He sat up and saw water rushing into his small bedroom. His instinct told him to open up the bathroom door so the water had more space to fill, which might spare his life for longer...
It Was Happening Fast
In one swift motion, he watched his crew members disappear. “Three guys were in front of me and suddenly water rushed in full force. I saw the first one, the second one, the third one just washed away. I knew these guys were dead,” he recalled.
Tumbling Around the Cabin
Before he knew it, he was thrown into the bathroom. It only took one breath for his feet to be swept beneath him. The boat had tipped over.
Doing Anything to Survive
Harrison swiftly went into survival mode. He was slowly being enveloped by sea water. He clutched to the toilet to keep himself afloat as the capsized vessel quickly filled up with water...
Gotta Move!
Harrison knew that he had to make a plan. Anything was better than drowning while clinging to a toilet. This situation was life or death—Harrison knew that he had to make an extremely bold move.
He Found an Air Pocket
Terrified, Harrison swam to another part of the cabin where he found an air pocket. To save energy, he ripped paneling off of the walls to use as a flotation device. He had no idea how long he would be stuck in there...
What Help On The Way?
It was pitch black and freezing cold. He knew that the boat was totally submerged. Everything else was completely disorienting. Was he ever going to be saved?
Fighting Off Dread
“I was very, very cold and it was black. I couldn’t see anything. But I could perceive the dead bodies of my crew were nearby,” Harrison said in an interview. “I could smell them. The fish came in and began eating the bodies. I could hear the sound. It was horror."
Hanging On For Life
Harrison knew that he needed all of his energy, so he clung to his makeshift raft as much as he could. Using any energy to stay afloat could take away from his energy to stay alive...
Losing Oxygen
One of his worst fears was coming to fruition. He was losing oxygen. The air was getting thinner and thinner and he was finding it hard to breathe. How much oxygen did he have left? How long could he survive underwater?
Starving to Death
If he doesn't suffocate, he will probably starve to death. “I was so hungry but mostly so, so thirsty,” he said. “The salt water took the skin off my tongue.”
Sounds of Hope
At the time, he had no idea how long he'd been in the ocean. It felt like years before he heard any other person. The hum of the coast guard boat was close, and he knew that help was on the way. They just needed to find him before it was too late...
How Will They Find Him?
“I heard a sound of a hammer hitting the vessel,” Harrison remembered “Boom, boom, boom. I swam down and found a water dispenser. I pulled the water filter and I hammered the side of the vessel hoping someone would hear me. Then the diver must have heard a sound.”
The Expert Team Arrived
Harrison's quick thinking and will to live saved his life. The expert diver heard his bangs and was able to pinpoint where the survivor was. Harrison saw the light of the diver and knew that he was saved...
It Never Really Ends
Even though Harrison is safe at home, the incident hasn't left him. “When I am at home sometimes it feels like the bed…is sinking. I think I’m still in the sea again. I jump up and I scream. I don’t know what stopped the water from filling that room. I was calling on God. He did it. It was a miracle.”
The Lone Survivor
Harrison was the only one to survive out of the 12-man crew. He told his tragic tale as a warning for the dangerous waters. Many people didn't believe him nor did they heed his warnings...
Grave Yacht Trip
Harrison's warnings fell on deaf ears and many people didn't respect the sea as he had forewarned. Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava, along with their dogs, Valentine and Zeus, boarded their yacht in preparation for a 3-week trip. They assumed that it would go smoothly.
They Didn't Check the Weather
Just like Harrison's crew, the couple didn't check the weather of the seas that they were head into. Their yacht was completely destroyed by a devastating storm that garnered huge waves. They had only been on the sea for 4 hours.
Just the Two of Us
Luckily, the yacht was still floating... It wasn't floating well, but it was floating. Jennifer (right) and Tasha (left) had only met a few months prior. They both decided to take a yacht out for fun, even though neither of them had the sailing experience.
Crossed Paths
Tasha previously worked as a security guard in Samoa. Jennifer left a job in Texas as a landscaper. She planned to settle on a Polynesian Island and work as an organic farmer. Tasha just wanted to travel. They both figured their plans were similar enough to pull it off...
The One Thing They Did Right...
Even though they were vastly unprepared in most ways, there was one area that they did succeed in preparation. They brought enough food to last themselves for an entire year! Even though they were hopelessly lost, they wouldn't starve...
Days Turn Into Weeks
No one had heard from the women in days, which was unlike them. Tasha promised her mother that she would contact her after a few days on the water, and she didn't. So, they filed a missing person's report.
5 Months Later
A crew of fishermen spotted the vessel 1,000 miles off of the Japanese coast. The boat had started its journey in Honolulu, so it traveled a long way! The crew could tell that something was off, so they prepared themselves for the worst...
Rescue Mission
The women and dogs were alive and well! They somehow managed to survive five months at sea. The Taiwanese fishing crew contacted the U.S. Coastguard in Guam and The USS Ashland dispatched on a mission to rescue the women and the dogs!
Freedom!
Jennifer remembered seeing the ship on the horizon as they were being saved. She recounted, “They saved our lives. The pride and smiles we had when we saw [them] was pure relief." They had so many stories to tell...
A Bizarre Story
They both recounted seeing tons of tiger sharks out in the open water. A lot of the time, the older sharks would teach the younger ones how to fight using the hull of the yacht. At night, they would wake up to the sharks attacking the hull... This is the story that brought these two women to national attention.
Lies?
Shark experts immediately dismissed their story of the sharks. George Burgess, a shark expert from The Florida Museum of Natural History, claimed that tiger sharks would never swim in large packs and that they weren't as large as Jennifer and Tasha said that they were. What else was a lie?
Setting up a GoFundMe
In an even weirder twist, the women set up a charity account to help them "get back on their feet." This raised the alarm as to whether or not their story was even true... Then, people started poking holes. A lot of them.
The Severe Storm
Many people began questioning the severity of the storm. The National Weather Service reported no storms on May 3rd, the night that the women were allegedly victims of the storm. Jennifer claimed that it was a Force 11 storm and tried to back it up with proof, but her proof said that the forecast was of 10-foot-waves... A Force 11 storm would bring waves to 40 feet tall.
A Hoax?
Suddenly, people began to wonder if it was even real at all. Their emergency radio was working perfectly fine and they could have asked for help. Instead, they didn't and floated around the ocean for five months. It's also peculiar that they had enough food to last them for that long...
No One Knows for Sure
Obviously, it's hard to tell if a story like this is fake or not. A lot of their tales don't add up or were exaggerated... Their GoFundMe account, which had a goal of $50,000, never made it past $40. It seemed that others didn't believe their stint.
Take Care with Sailing
Whether their story was fake or not, the moral of their story and Harrison's is to always take care when sailing. You never know what you're going to run into.