2 dogs and their owners spent 5 months lost at sea on a sailboat

AP Photo/Koji Ueda

Valentine and Zeus, along with their human owners, were lost at sea for five months after their sailboat was disabled by a storm. Things looked increasingly grim for the canines — until they were all rescued by the U.S. Navy last week, drifting about 900 miles southeast off the coast of Japan.

Videos by Rare

RELATED: Why the Coast Guard thinks tale 2 rescued sailors are telling sounds increasingly fishy

The boat was supposed to sail from Oahu, Hawaii to Tahiti in what was supposed to be a one-month long journey. The dogs, who kept their human counterparts calm during the storm, were wearing lifejackets at the time of the rescue. Over the past five months, there were times when Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiaba, both of Honolulu, Hawaii, thought it was all over.

Sharks circled the boat one night, and the women were losing hope.

[protected-iframe id=”98d6e5f9371bc3d1ab84f2b2e13f4e82-46934866-120279019″ info=”https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FUSSAshlandLSD48%2Fposts%2F10156269601344311&width=500″ width=”500″ height=”589″ frameborder=”0″ style=”border:none;overflow:hidden” scrolling=”no”]

“I went downstairs with the boys and we basically laid huddled on the floor and I told them not to bark, because the sharks could hear us breathing. They could smell us,” Appel told NBC News.

RELATED: Deaths of 2 Navy sailors found in the same home days apart prompt an investigation

But, thankfully, after a coordinated effort among the Navy, a Taiwanese fishing vessel that first spotted them and the Coast Guard in Guam, the fearless foursome is finally safe.

What do you think?

How Hurricane Harvey Changed the way Houston shops

DePaul alum and Trump’s buddy George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to lying to FBI