Eyebrows are being raised in the story from two women with two dogs who were on a 50-foot yacht hit by bad weather and lost at sea for almost six months before being rescued by a U.S. Navy ship, notes Grumpy Editor.
What hit them, they claim, was a storm with near hurricane-force winds on the night they set sail from Hawaii on a planned 18-day voyage to Tahiti.
But government records show no severe weather at that time in their area of departure, reports an Associated Press follow-up story.
The women had an emergency beacon aboard their yacht but never turned it on, say Coast Guard officials. If they had, rescue routine would have been dispatched in minutes.
The women also mention a coordinated attack by 20 to 30-foot tiger sharks ramming their boat for more than six hours. However, shark experts point out such a routine by tiger sharks has never been recorded and the sharks grow only to about 17 feet.
Mother of one of the women says she called the Coast Guard to report her missing daughter one and a half weeks after departure. The Coast Guard claims it never got such a call.
The women also say they flagged vessels and sent distress signals for at least 98 days.
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE…
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VIN SCULLY ABANDONS NFL. Former Los Angeles Dodgers announcer and Hall of Famer Vin Scully, who turns 90 this month, says, "I used to love, during the fall and winter, to watch the NFL on Sunday. And it's not that I'm some great patriot. I was in the Navy for a year --- didn't go anywhere, didn't do anything. But I have overwhelming respect and admiration for anyone who puts on a uniform and goes to war. So the only thing I can do in my little way is not to preach. I will never watch another NFL game."
TV REPORTER AT CRIME SCENE. KTVU news reporter Claudine Wong became the subject of a crime story when her purse was stolen in a Concord, Calif. parking lot. She says she was pushing a shopping cart after visiting a Costco store on Friday when a car pulled up beside her and a man leaned out of the passenger side and grabbed her purse from atop the cart. Then the car sped off.
MAGAZINE PUBLISHER CUTS JOBS. New York-based publisher Condé Nast is slashing about 80 jobs from its 3,000 work force as budgets are being sliced. The publisher also is reducing frequencies of some titles and will close Teen Vogue in print. Not seeing frequency changes are monthly titles Vogue, Vanity Fair and Wired plus weekly The New Yorker and Brides which runs six times a year.
MARKET SHOPPER STEALS RED WINE. A male shopper at California’s Incline Village at Lake Tahoe walks out of a supermarket with a shopping cart loaded with about 55 bottles of stolen expensive red wine worth about $15,000, report authorities.
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