Two female sailors, who got lost in the Pacific for five months have been rescued, the U.S. Navy said in a statement on Friday.

 The two women, along with their dogs, set off from the Hawaiian capital Honolulu on the more-than-4,000-km journey to the island of Tahiti.

 After engine trouble in May, they tried using just the sail. It would normally take 21 days to complete the voyage, Hawaiian television station KITV reported.

 After they failed to reach Tahiti after two months, they sent out daily distress calls, but they were too far away from other ships.

 On Oct. 24, a Taiwanese fishing boat spotted them 1,400 km south-east of Japan and 8,000 km away from Tahiti.

 The USS Ashland, stationed in Japan, reached them on Wednesday.

 The women had survived because they had packed water and food for a year.