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They set off from Hawaii in May of this year, bound for Tahiti. They were caught in a storm that both ruined their engine and rendered their mast and sails useless. They were unable to contact help. They drifted for five months, living off of dry food and a handheld watermaker (takes the salt out of seawater so you can drink it) until they were rescued by a fishing boat and, eventually, the Navy. Now here’s how much of their story makes sense: They left Hawaii in May. They were rescued five months later by the Navy. That’s it. That’s...

Something is wishy-washy here. Two Hawaii women who claimed they were lost at sea for five months and “would have been dead within 24 hours” had the U.S. Navy not picked them up last week never activated their emergency beacon, the Coast Guard said Tuesday, adding to a growing list of inconsistencies and questions that cast doubt on their harrowing tale of survival in the Pacific Ocean. "If the thing was operational and it was turned on, a signal should have been received very, very quickly that this vessel was in distress," Phillip R. Johnson, a retired Coast Guard officer,...

KAMATCHSKAYA, Russia — In this tiny village on the Sea of Okhotsk, veteran fisherman were surprised when they went to harvest the sturgeon eggs used to make famed Kamatchskaya caviar. “My nets were torn to shreds,” said Piotr ‘No Relation’ Stalin, who has been plying these waters for forty years. “So were the nets of every other fisherman. Much to our surprise, the slashes were very clean, as if they had been made with a razor blade.” While the nets were repaired, Piotr’s son, Josef, put on diving gear and went to investigate. What he discovered in the murky waters...