I am not a sailor...just a passenger so I am trying to understand what happened with the couples currently detained in BVI.

If they were traveling from Maho to Watermelon around Mary's Point and were stopped 1.5 miles into BVI waters, where were they? The map seems to show less than a mile of distance between Mary's Point and BVI land. Would they tack way over and then tack back? 1.5 miles would be quite a ways into BVI territory.