Simple past instead of past perfect acceptable here?

Hi,

Could you please tell me if simple past instead of past perfect would also be acceptable in the second sentence of the following beginning of a newspaper article?

"Two men were rescued by French coastguards early on Saturday morning. They had left / left Torquay in a small sailing boat on Friday and had been blown / were blown off course by a storm. The men were picked up three miles off the French coast."

Would it even be possible to use the combination had left + were blown?

Thank you very much in advance.