I would say any vessel would have had trouble, based on how the Ocean, Surf looked like at 7:30 or so, when I was there.
Looked like a lot of Cross Rips, Tons of big surf, and white water.. Funny thing, just a few miles North of there, it looked fairly calm
The backside, conditions can be very different, just a few miles apart tho. On and off autopilot, meybe they was catching a snooze