a winter in Alberta! A couple of those under your belt and sailing the beach cat to Hawaii starts to make sense!!
In all seriousness, this is the sort of thing that drives me nuts. The lack of preparation and experience is what brings the "big brother" types running with demands for licences and restrictions because someone used poor judgement or had bad luck. The 9 year old adds the candle to the cake. Sh#t can happen no matter how you prepare but these stories make it easy to clamp down on everyone.
The Captain and crew of Horizon Reliance did a magnificant job IMHO and it will be interesting to see what other facts come out about the sailboat and crew. I find the media rarely gets it right on the first few attempts.