Every one seems to be missing the basic point here which is that the boat was not properly equipped.
No life raft, no distress beacon, no bail out bag.
The BBC reported that the boat took around 5 min to sink. In a bail out situation 5 mins is practically forever.


That story also tells you that there is either no air sea rescue on St Lucia (which I doubt as it is a British colony) or that no one heard the distress call.