Quest for the Sea

King Cod With trepidation the men of Hay Cove take to the seas in period appropriate 16-foot long skiffs. Placentia Bay is a deadly body of water and the men are hesitant, but the community has gone into debt with a local merchant in order to receive their much-needed summer supplies. The men will need good luck and long hours of labour to balance their account. The stress of this crushing debt causes tensions to appear in the community. Life at Hay Cove becomes complicated and the challenges of the sea are mirrored by the complexity of strangers living together in a distant time. And then injury strikes.

The Storms of August After six weeks of struggle the Hay Cove families finally find a rhythm and life becomes less arduous. The women bake, the children pick berries, and the men fish from the dark of morning to the dark of night. The summer is warm and Hay Cove is redolent with green vegetables and golden evenings. Behind the privacy of the family homes however, storms are brewing and Hay Cove descends into bickering, insults and tears of frustration.

Re-settlement It is late August. The fish are far out at sea and the weather is worsening. In Hay Cove, a cloud of tension hangs over the families. As the community recovers from a terrible fight, the men take to the seas in a desperate attempt to catch enough fish to pay the debt. But it is not the bill collector who disrupts life at Hay Cove; it is the resettlement program. The Wheelers must move out of their home and they have no choice but to move in with the Murrays. For the final week of their summer, the families live as one while the Wheeler home is placed on a bed of logs and, inch by inch, is slowly pulled out towards the sea, symbolizing the end of an era for many in Newfoundland.