Does yous guys thinks that desmonds old girlfriends knews he was on the island?
She probably hopes he is, but she might just be trying to unravel the thing that might have played a part in his disappearance.
Why would the magnets attract his sailboat?
The metallic objects on it?That isn't what I meant. She probably heard that he never got to the end and in races like that, there are usually check in points so they would have a record of where he last contacted anyone. Based on that she stumbles upon the Widmore notes of their island work, which happens to be right about where he last checked in. She starts delving in deeper and realizes more cover ups, etc. and she has a ton of money so after not finding the island via conventional ways (she probably chartered helicopters, etc.), she reads more notes and finds the EM weirdness so she sets the ruskies up to look for readings like the "incident," which Widmore knows about because they were contracted to fix things and build the hatch after the leak.
Sound good? I am pulling it out of my ###, but it sounds plausible to me, you silly, silly man.