Two US yachtswomen and their two dogs have been rescued by the US Navy after spending nearly five months adrift in the Pacific Ocean, officials say, reports BBC.

Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiaba had set off in a small sailing boat from Hawaii on a trip to Tahiti when their engine, damaged by the bad weather, failed.

Their boat then drifted in the open seas about 1,500km (930 miles) southeast of Japan.

They were rescued after a fishing vessel alerted US authorities.

The pair, who set off in May, originally thought that they could reach land by relying on wind and sails, the US Navy’s Seventh fleet said in a statement.

“Two months into their journey and long past when they originally estimated they would reach Tahiti, they began to issue distress calls,” the statement added.