I speculate they were trying to make the Bahamas. I feel sad. They should have been stopped. They were too young to have unlimited decision making.
They didn't have "unlimited decision making" authority. Their parents had limited them to the water way and rivers. They weren't supposed to go outside. When you're that age though, you think you're immortal. I know I was.
compare this reaction to the little girl who “sailed around the world” and the cheers she got
When I was their age decades and decades ago, we were not allowed in a boat unsupervised unless the boat was tied to the dock; when not tied to the dock, one or more adults (parents) were on board.
Never were we allowed under any circumstances to be on board a boat leaving the bay or harbor area and going into the open ocean, let alone when storm warning flags were up. Traveling the distance from Florida to the Bahamas as children in a storm alone on a boat would have been literally unthinkable.
What are the boating laws in Florida? Is it illegal for boys this age to be operating a vessel?