A planned voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti aboard a small sailboat descended into a five-month nightmare at sea for two Honolulu women.

Things got off to an ominous start on day one of the trip when their cellphone washed overboard and sank into the sea.

Things got significantly worse for the two women - who have since been identified by the Navy as Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava, of Honolulu.

In May, about a month into their trip, treacherous weather conditions caused their engine to lose power, but the pair believed they could still reach Tahiti using their sails. 

Their mast had been damaged, and as they drifted across thousands of miles of open ocean, their water purifier temporarily stopped working and they became a target for sharks.

The pair sent out daily distress calls that no one heard, and were finally rescued by the U.S. Navy on Wednesday about 900 miles southeast of Japan.

'When I saw the grey boat on the edge of the horizon, my heart leaped because I knew that we were about to be saved, because I honestly believed we were going to die within the next 24 hours,' Appel said, on Friday morning's Today show.