It turns out that he has a USCG 100 Ton license. Prior to starting on their circumnavigation he worked as a "delivery skipper", which means people paid him to move their expensive boats up and down the west coast. He seems highly experienced. They apparently sold everything and invested in a decent used boat during the downturn, when prices were low. The boat was their home.

Long distance cruising is actually generally a fairly safe activity. Lots of people do it. Quite a few of them do it with young children aboard. It is only when something bad like this happens that it makes the news. I suspect they just got caught by a string of bad luck. It is easy to ask, sitting shore side "...why didn't they fix the equipment that broke?", but in bad weather it can be very difficult to impossible at sea, even when you have the spares. Given half a break with the weather he probably could have fixed it and we wouldn't be having this thread.

So far the only real information is what has been in the mainstream press. I think we all know how accurate that is likely to be? Until we get a lot more info, I think people are going a bit over the top in condemning these people.