What a difference a day makes. July 16th.

Nothing like food, sleep and a good shower. We met two kind Nova Scotians offered up a cottage they were renting in order for us to take a shower. This was followed by an ice-cold beer and a homemade stew. They even dried all of our wet gear. We got back to the boat and slept. We must have slept 16 hours straight. Woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and began trying to get the boat back in working order. The damage was less than we thought. The structure (main beam, bulkhead) of the boat hadn’t altered at all. The tensions in the stays were perfect.

We called a diver, who took the line out of the propeller. No damage to the propeller or rudder. Turned on the engine, and all was good.

And we spoke to other sailors who had weathered the rough seas the same morning. All of whom had trusted those far from perfect weather forecasts. One man’s engine stalled and he was unable to call the coast guard since his VHF radio was malfunctioning. He ended up using his dingy to push his boat into the fisherman’s village. It took him a courageous 4 hours just to arrange the dingy in position due to the high waves. Another couple in a much larger ship were overpowered by the weather and called the coast guard for an alternative place to anchor/dock. A third sailboat got seaweed stuck in their engine cooling system. Regardless, they risked running the engine, praying that it would get them to the harbour without overheating, stalling and even causing permanent damage to the engine itself. 

While all of these people went through difficult challenges, it was nice to have someone to share our story with. Accidents happen. Of course, we (re)learned valuable lessons from this experience.  And now, as the sun has finally shown itself, we have gained the required confidence to continue on our trip at least as far as Nova Scotia.