Jennifer Appel was kinky sailor and dominatrix

One of the two women found drifting 5,000 miles off course in the South Pacific was a self styled ‘kinky sailor’ who set off from Hawaii in an ‘unseaworthy’ yacht after paying for the trip by working as a dominatrix, DailyMailTV can exclusively disclose.

Jennifer Appel, 48, had been heading to Tahiti in French Polynesia to start a new life accompanied by Tasha Fuiava, 27, when the voyage went wrong.

The women claimed they had been hit by a storm just after leaving port and then drifted helplessly for months as passing ships ignored their distress calls, before being picked up at the end of October by the USS Ashland 900 miles south of Japan.

Those claims came under scrutiny when it was revealed that the ‘storm’ they said damaged their ship had never happened, and they failed to use an emergency beacon which would have alerted rescuers to their exact position.

On NBC’s Today show on Wednesday, the pair admitted to being in contact with the coastguard after the ‘storm’ but said they had  decided to press on anyway and shrugged off Matt Lauer as he pointed out that  

They spoke at length and made a series of new claims which only served to heighten confusion about what actually happened.

Now DailyMailTV can reveal just how unprepared they were – and how far from being a skilled sailor, Appel’s experience included spells as an erotic novelist, professional dominatrix and exotic dancer, as well as a landscape architect and organic farmer.

Appel (pictured naked on a motor bike) was a self styled ‘kinky sailor’ who set off from Hawaii in an ‘unseaworthy’ yacht after paying for the trip by working as a dominatrix and an exotic dancer, DailyMailTV can exclusively reveal

The petite blonde penned her first erotic novel, The Original Niagara Falls Angel Falls: The Nephilim Stories Part One, in 2005 – re-released in a ‘revised’ edition in 2011.  The book includes a number of sultry photographs, among them one that shows semi-naked Appel spanking another woman (pictured) 

Appel has a history of maritime catastrophes: she acquired the Sea Nymph last year having written off her first boat, the FSOW, in an accident in January 2012 (pictured)

Friends told DailyMailTV that Appel now plans to turn her experience into a book – perhaps aptly, as one of her two erotic novels featured threesomes and same-sex couplings on a yacht.

Appel and Fuiva had only known each other for a week when the Texas-born former landscape architect persuaded the 250lb Samoan security guard, who is 21 years her junior, to join her for the cruise to the South Pacific.

Friends in Hawaii said Appel hoped to start a new organic farm in French Polynesia, while Fuiava came along for the ride on ‘a whim’.

But while Appel had made short trips around the coasts of Oahu and Kauai, Fuiava, a former student at the University of Hawaii, had zero sailing experience.

And DailyMailTV can reveal that Appel had a history of maritime catastrophes: she acquired the Sea Nymph last year having written off her first boat, the FSOW, in an accident in January 2012.

Photographs obtained by DailyMailTV show the fate the FSOW suffered when Appel took it out in stormy seas – ending up smashed on the rocks at Magic Island, which sits at the western end of the famous Wakiki Beach.

Appel had a male passenger and her dog Valentine on board for the doomed trip, which was made to test a new outboard engine purchased for an earlier attempt at an epic ocean crossing.

Her much younger ex-boyfriend, Roman Kalinowski, 26, a DJ and professional blackjack player from Honolulu who dated Appel between 2011 and 2014, told DailyMailTV: ‘Pretty much what happened is she bought a new outboard motor because she was preparing to go on a longer journey back then and she chose probably the worst day ever to test it out.

Appel dated Roman Kalinowski, 26, (pictured together) a DJ and professional blackjack player, between 2011 and 2014. He claims that she was an incompetent sailor and a motorbike accident in her 20s ‘affected the judgment part of her brain’

Appel was living on her boat the FSOW at the time of the crash (pictured). She was forced to coach surf for a time afterwards 

Appel, who holds a degree in landscape architecture from Texas A&M University, once described herself ‘a cougar who has been engaged four times but never married’ 

Her ex boyfriend Kalinowski (left and right) said: ‘Pretty much what happened is she bought a new outboard motor because she was preparing to go on a longer journey back then and she chose probably the worst day ever to test it out. She really was [lucky not to get hurt]’ 

He added: ‘She had her dog on the boat too and another guy who was helping her sail and yeah, it’s a miracle that none of them got hurt’. Pictured: The Magic Island causeway where Appel crashed her first boat FSOW

He continued: ‘There was surf swell of maybe like 10ft or so – three or four meters just coming up the channel, big ass waves. She thought that would be a great day to test it out and then of course the motor dies as soon as she’s in the channel and then one or two big waves and bam, her boat’s right on the reef.

‘She really was [lucky not to get hurt]. She had her dog on the boat too and another guy who was helping her sail and yeah, it’s a miracle that none of them got hurt. But the boat was totally destroyed.’

Clifford Inn, of the State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, said: ‘She was on what we call a buoy run [to check the vessel is seaworthy] and it ran aground. It was a total loss.’

It was more than just a lost boat to Appel, who had been living on the FSOW which she moored at the pretty Ala Wai Harbor in Honolulu.

Appel, who was born and raised in Houston, Texas, moved to Hawaii in 2008.

The 5ft 3in blonde went on to hold down a series of jobs in her home city, but wrote off a motorbike in her early twenties in a crash that broke nearly every bone in her body and, Kalinowski said, ‘affected the judgment part of her brain’.

She would later work as a landscape architect and a skydiving instructor, and penned her first novel, The Original Niagara Falls Angel Falls: The Nephilim Stories Part One, in 2005 – re-released in a ‘revised’ edition in 2011.

Written under the name LJ Leppa – her last name and initials written backwards – she described it as a distillation of her online dating experiences and her quest to ‘find a possible mate or at least a person who would want to have fun sharing time well-spent together’.

Appel and Fuiva had only known each other for a week when the Texas-born former landscape architect persuaded the 250lb Samoan security guard, who is 21 years her junior, to join her for the cruise. They set off from Honolulu on May 3 

Pictured: Appel blows kisses as rescuers approach her crippled sailboat, the Sea Nymph, after being lost at sea with Tasha Fuiava and two dogs for months, about 900 miles southeast of Japan. The Navy sent the USS Ashland to their rescue. The Coast Guard is reviewing records from the days after Appel and Fuiava put to sea

In order to bring in some cash, Appel turned to stripping, exotic dancing and working as a professional dominatrix to make ends meet according to a former boyfriend. Pictured: A naked Appel dangling from a ceiling contraption in a seductive dance

According to her profile, which also includes a selection of X-rated photos and videos, Appel was offering coaching to couples – describing it as her ‘preference’ – and claimed to have built a private dungeon for her own personal use

Appel has tried her hand at writing erotica fiction. Some of the steamier scenes she wrote feature 50 Shades of Gray-style bondage and domination, lesbian sex and graphic depictions of threesomes with married couples and younger lovers. A typical paragraph reads: ‘He bound her wrists and told her to submit. After he finished kissing her from head to toe and causing several gushing orgasms, he untied her wrists and laid her on the bed. Now it was her turn’ 

In the introduction, Appel, who holds a degree in landscape architecture from Texas A&M University, called herself ‘a cougar who has been engaged four times but never married’.

The book also includes a number of sultry photographs, among them one that shows semi-naked Appel spanking another woman and a second that depicts her totally naked and straddling a motorbike.

Along with a smattering of autobiographical detail, including the claim that she was sexually abused by a neighbor growing up, most of the content is sex in a variety of locations – among them Hawaii, Orlando and Koh Samui. 

Some of the steamier scenes feature 50 Shades of Gray style bondage and domination, lesbian sex and graphic depictions of threesomes with married couples and younger lovers.

A typical paragraph reads: ‘He bound her wrists and told her to submit. After he finished kissing her from head to toe and causing several gushing orgasms, he untied her wrists and laid her on the bed. Now it was her turn.’

Despite her literary hopes of success, the loss of the FSOW in 2012 meant a destitute Appel was briefly forced to sleep on friends’ sofas.

After running out of spare rooms, she moved in with Kalinowski at his family’s Wakiki apartment for a few months but moved back to her native Houston, Texas, for almost a year after his disapproving mother asked her to leave.

On her return, in 2013, she was forced to rely on food stamps to survive after a second business, AppelJacks Housing, also failed to take off – as did a third: an organic farm in a remote part of Oahu.

That business, Jenn’s Organic Farm & Garden, saw her spend over a year living in a tent on a half-acre plot squeezed between larger farms in Kunia Camp.

Appel obtained a degree in landscape architecture from Texas A&M University. She lived on her boat the FSOW until she crashed it in 2012. After coach surfing for awhile, she returned to Texas for a spell 

Appel seemed to specialize in bondage play and posted this picture of her strung up with colorful ribbons to a contraption on her personal fetish website page

Appel returned to Hawaii in 2013 and was forced to rely on food stamps to survive after a second business, AppelJacks Housing, also failed to take off – as did a third: an organic farm in a remote part of Oahu. She then turned to exotic dancing 

Appel’s literary efforts were not enough to save her farm and by the end of 2015, it was no longer in business and Appel moved back to Honolulu – leaving a string of unpaid bills behind her 

Her ex boyfriend said: ‘She was on government food assistance for as long as I knew her, and never seemed motivated to work much. She got a few odd jobs such as data entry and exotic dancing, as well as the occasional dominatrix gig but that’s about it’

Although still in a ‘polyamorous relationship’ with Kalinowinski, she was joined for part of it by Damon Ackerman, a 50-year-old therapist who was not dating Appel and who now lives in Kona on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Close friend Matthew Sorensen, 34, told DailyMail.com: ‘It was a little farm in Kunia growing arugula and kale and stuff. She was really into conservation and cultural preservation out here. Not just the environment but culture as well.’

Appel’s interest in the environment later led her to become obsessed with the Fukushima nuclear disaster, regularly measuring radiation in the land on her farm, which she then blogged about via her YouTube channel.

Her obsession with Fukushima also led her to become increasingly concerned about the food she ate, for a time eschewing rice grown after the disaster for fear of contamination.

‘I remember one time she found bugs in her rice store on her boat,’ ex-lover Kalinowinski told DailyMail.com.

‘Rather than chuck the rice and get a new bag, she went through the rice for a few weeks picking out the bugs because the rice was grown before the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. She was convinced that any new rice was bad and radioactive.’

Appel also found time to write an even raunchier follow-up to her erotic literary debut, this time setting the action on the high seas.

The plot follows sailor Tad as he engages in a whirlwind romance with dominatrix LJ and her ‘slave’ Laurie.

The women said that they set out from Honolulu on a 50ft sailboat called the Sea Nymph on May 3 but a series of conflicting claims have been made since – including when they sat down with Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today show on Wednesday

Sticking to the story that their boat was ravaged by a storm within days of them setting sail, the pair conceded that their tale was somewhat unbelievable but said they never asked for any of the attention they have received

Appel’s (left and right) friend Matthew Sorensen, 34, told DailyMail.com: ‘It was a little farm in Kunia growing arugula and kale and stuff. She was really into conservation and cultural preservation out here. Not just the environment but culture as well’ 

Appel also found time to write an even raunchier follow-up to her erotic literary debut, this time setting the action on the high seas. The plot follows sailor Tad as he engages in a whirlwind romance with dominatrix LJ and her ‘slave’ Laurie 

‘LJ and Laurie were leaning their backs against a mid-cabin bulkhead while they kissed, fingered … each other. The growing steel c*** raged at the sight of them. He felt like his heart would explode in excitement.’

Although still available to purchase online, Appel’s literary efforts were not enough to save her farm and by the end of 2015, it was no longer in business with Ackerman relocating to the Big Island and Appel moving back to Honolulu – leaving a string of unpaid bills behind her.

Kalinowinski, who split up with Appel at the start of 2014, said: ‘When she returned to the island in 2013, she started living in a tent on a half-acre of agricultural land in Kunia.

‘I misjudged the value of her patent [for the green roof design] and paid for the land rental for almost a year in the hopes that she would be able to reimburse me for previous rent.

‘She eventually gave up on trying to sell that patent, and no income came from this, but she owes me around $9,000 for slip rent and the land rental.’

In a bid to make money, Appel then took on a number of consultancy positions – meeting Michael Krijnen, 68, an Australian-born architect, while working on a homeless housing project for Honolulu City Council in 2016.

‘We tried to get together and put together a program where she could use her patent,’ he told DailyMailTV.

‘It’s an invention she has for providing growing material to put on the surfaces of buildings so we can go green. I was interested in bringing that technology to Hawaii.’

But the consultancy work did not bring in as much cash as Appel needed, with the 48-year-old turning to stripping and working as a professional dominatrix to make ends meet according to Kalinowinski.

According to friends, the 48-year-old was planning to start a new life in Tahiti and a new organic farm – despite not having applied for a work visa. Americans can visit Tahiti for up to six months at a time on a tourist visa obtainable on arrival 

Although Appel had originally planned to make the trip with a boyfriend, they split and her partner onboard was Tasha Fuiava – a lonely 250lb security guard. The two met when Appel moved the Sea Nymph to the Keehi Small Boat Harbor in January

A profile on a fetish website reveals that for a while, Appel was plying her trade as a ‘pro domme’ and was a member of local fetish groups that included Kinky Sailing and Leather and Leis

He said: ‘She was on government food assistance for as long as I knew her, and never seemed motivated to work much.

‘She got a few odd jobs such as data entry and exotic dancing, as well as the occasional dominatrix gig but that’s about it.’

A profile on a fetish website reveals that for a while, Appel was plying her trade as a ‘pro domme’ and was a member of local fetish groups that included Kinky Sailing and Leather and Leis.

According to the profile, which also includes a selection of X-rated photos and videos, Appel was offering coaching to couples – describing it as her ‘preference’ – and claimed to have built a private dungeon for her own personal use.

Quite where the dungeon was located is unclear but by the middle of 2016, Appel was once again living on a boat, having managed to get her hands on the Sea Nymph, which she first moored at the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor in downtown Honolulu.

The boat was purchased from Kauai, the northernmost outcrop in the Hawaiian Island chain which is 120 miles from Honolulu.

Bringing it from there was, according to Kalinowinski, the only time she has sailed anywhere other than in the coastal waters off Oahu.

Nonetheless, Appel had already begun planning her trip to Papa’ete – the French Polynesian capital which lies 2,741 miles south of Honolulu.

By April 2017, Appel had saved up the $5,000 she needed for a years’ worth of food for the voyage – but had not raised enough cash to fix the Sea Nymph’s elderly mast 

By April 2017, Appel had saved up the $5,000 she needed for a years’ worth of food for the voyage – but had not raised enough cash to fix the Sea Nymph’s elderly mast. Pictured: Appel’s old crashed boat FSOW in 2012 

Fuiava is originally from Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa, and was working as a guard at Jan-Guard Hawaii Inc when she met Appel. The younger woman was living four miles from the harbor at a dingy $350-per-month apartment above an auto audio store in Honolulu but had never sailed a day in her life when she agreed to join Appel on her voyage ‘on a whim’ 

According to friends, the 48-year-old was planning to start a new life in Tahiti and a new organic farm – despite not having applied for a work visa. Americans can visit Tahiti for up to six months at a time on a tourist visa obtainable on arrival.

Krijnen said: ‘She just wanted to drop out for a bit, go to Tahiti and see what would happen. If you go to a desert island and there’s nobody living there, and you’ve got food and you’ve got a water purifier, it’s not a bad place to be.’

By April 2017, Appel had saved up the $5,000 she needed for a years’ worth of food for the voyage – but had not raised enough cash to fix the Sea Nymph’s elderly mast.

‘She wanted to sail to Tahiti, I thought she would be just fine,’ Krijnen said. ‘I know that she went with the thought that her mast wasn’t as good as it should have been.

‘But I don’t think anybody was expecting her to be caught in what she was caught in. She was caught off guard.’

Kalinowski, who has been sailing since he was 10, added: ‘[The Sea Nymph] definitely wasn’t seaworthy in my opinion.

‘It looked like it was a little bit on the older side. She didn’t really have any income, any steady income source so I doubt she had the resources to really fit it up to make an ocean passage like that.

‘To do something like that [sailing to Tahiti], you want to go through the standing rigging, the mast – all that stuff.’

A yoga friend, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, added: ‘She’s not very bright – very ditzy and not very grounded.

‘You never got the feeling she really knew what she was doing. When I saw what happened to her [getting lost at sea], I wasn’t surprised – she’s never been very organized.’

A yoga friend of Appel’s, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said: ‘She’s not very bright – very ditzy and not very grounded. ‘You never got the feeling she really knew what she was doing. When I saw what happened to her [getting lost at sea], I wasn’t surprised – she’s never been very organized’. Pictured: Fuiava being rescued in late October 

Chris Kariaga Jr, who runs Car Audio Tech, which sits below Fuiava’s apartment (pictured), said: ‘I almost didn’t recognize her when I saw the pictures [of Fuiava aboard the USS Ashland]. ‘She lost a lot of weight – maybe half her body weight’ 

Unlike the ritzy Ala Wai, Keehi (pictured) sits four miles south of Honolulu in an industrial area and comes with a starting rate of $300 per month for mooring

Although Appel had originally planned to make the trip with a boyfriend, they split and her partner onboard was Tasha Fuiava – a lonely 250lb security guard.

The two met when Appel moved the Sea Nymph to the Keehi Small Boat Harbor in January 2017. Unlike the ritzy Ala Wai, Keehi sits four miles south of Honolulu in an industrial area and comes with a starting rate of $300 per month for mooring.

Fuiava is originally from Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa, and was working as a guard at Jan-Guard Hawaii Inc when she met Appel.

The younger woman was living four miles from the harbor at a dingy $350-per-month apartment above an auto audio store in Honolulu but had never sailed a day in her life when she agreed to join Appel on her voyage to Tahiti ‘on a whim’.

Those who knew her before she left said she has lost a huge amount of weight during the trip thanks to a monotonous diet of dried pasta and rice aboard the Sea Nymph.

Chris Kariaga Jr, who runs Car Audio Tech, which sits below her apartment, said: ‘I almost didn’t recognize her when I saw the pictures [of Fuiava aboard the USS Ashland].

‘She lost a lot of weight – maybe half her body weight.’

He told DailyMail.com that Fuiava had liked to keep herself to herself, although she would occasionally say hello while picking up her post.

But handyman Sorensen, one of the few friends of Appel’s to meet her, said she was ‘friendly’, saying: ‘I met her one time. I met her briefly once and she was a friendly person – that’s all I knew.’

Kalinowski added: ‘From what I know, [Appel] met this security guard woman [Fuiava] a few days before they took off.

‘She was staying in the Keehi marina and the other woman was the security guard there and just kind of came along on a whim – it’s pretty crazy!’

In spite of her job, Fuiava had no sailing experience with Appel left to make all the decisions alone as a result.

Kalinowski said: ‘I’ve sailed with [Appel] quite a bit and I don’t think she’s a competent sailor. She could steer the boat, steer the wheel and do basic tacks and jibes, maneuvering, but she’s never done a really long sail like that.

‘I don’t know how she decided to just up and do that one day. She’s not a skilled navigator, no real blue water sailing experience. The other woman definitely had zero experience.’

The two women first went to Okinawa, Japan, along with their dogs, Valentine and Zeus, who are currently in quarantine and being processed by local authorities.

They appeared in New York for the Today show interview and plan return to Hawaii – although Appel is now homeless following the loss of her boat.

Krijnen, who has been in contact with Appel in Okinawa, says she plans to try and raise money to try for a fresh start in Tahiti a second time.

But her yoga friend told DailyMail.com she has new literary endeavors in mind. ‘She will probably be looking for a book deal or something like that.

‘I’m glad she survived but she took a huge risk. Hopefully she won’t try to do it [the Tahiti trip] again.’