The Eric Kaufman in the story was a licensed captain and his boat was equipped with a distress beacon.
His daughter got sick and he phoned for help. In this case the sat phone really does make more sense than using the beacon.

Kids get sick, that is a fact of life no matter where you are.
Although from reading their blogs there might have been some sanitation issues because of diapers being washed and reused there is really no way to know if that was a factor in the illness.
They seem to have been living on their boat since 2007 and they had already been sailing on this trip for one year before their daughter got sick

He decided to evacuate his vessel and scuttle it when his wife and daughters were aboard the rescue ship.

It does not sound like there was a lack of preparedness there. He seems to have been quite handy at doing the repairs that needed to be done. .
Everybody survived, the rescue expense was relatively small.