"I had no idea that we were going to be in this thing for 80 solid hours," Appel said of the storm of which there is no record.
Still, they pressed on.
Days later, after parts of their mast and rigging failed, they sailed up to another small island, still with a working motor, but decided against trying to land, believing the island was mostly uninhabited with no protected waters.
"It is uninhabited. They only have habitation on the northwest corner and their reef was too shallow for us to cross in order to get into the lagoon," Appel said.
When asked if the small island would have been a good place to land and repair their sails, Appel said no. "Kiribati, um, one whole half of the island is called shipwreck beach for a reason."
"We really did think we could make it to the next spot," Appel said.
Looks like they were cooking meth or running drugs and/or contraband.