And another thing. They were taking radio bearings which can travel hundreds of miles over open ocean if the mast is high enough. It makes sense they’d home into whatever was in range when they calculated their remaining fuel - distance. A port would have a high mast-mounted VHF radio for ship communications which would carry much further than airport or ship borne radio. Ergo, if their destination radio signal was not received they would head for what was available such as a port’s VHF.
Yup.....best to follow the evidence wherever it leads.