They were not in a dingy they were in a bayliner pleasure craft and they went out at midnight
I used to sail from Newport to Catalina quite often and was a bit miffed the article didn’t have the sense to mention the size of the boat, so I just made an absurd suggestion. Depends on the wind and waves, but anything less than 40 feet ona good day, for a power boat, out there would give me the runs.