For 48 students and 16 staff members aboard the Nova Scotia ship SV Concordia as part of the Class Afloat program, Feb. 17 was a terrifying day. The 57-metre tall ship, which sailed to Europe, Africa and South America as part of a semester at sea for Grades 11 and 12 as well as first-year university students, capsized. Luckily, everyone escaped unharmed.

A sinking, then a rescue

A student from West Island College holds a life-preserver upon his arrival at the Mocangue naval base in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. (Felipe Dana/Associated Press)Feb. 17, 10:00 a.m. ET: The ship suddenly flips onto its starboard side after experiencing a microburst — a rare and sudden downdraft of air in a small area — about 500 kilometres off Brazil. Within seconds, the ship's windows crack and students have water up to their necks. "It's just bad luck to be in that little tiny patch of the ocean at that particular moment in time," says the ship's captain, William Curry. "They don't last long — it's just maybe a 10- or 15-minute event and then it's over. It is pretty devastating to a sailing vessel because it pins you down as opposed to letting you go."

Feb. 17, 10:00 a.m.-10:20 a.m. ET: Well-trained in emergency procedures, students and staff board life-rafts, at one point using a kitchen knife to cut the straps of the rescue crafts that are pinned under the water. According to Rob MacDonald, the ship's second mate, practice drills help save lives. "It went over so fast, it happened so quickly. That everybody managed to get off safely, it would not have happened with a lesser calibre of people and crew," he says. "The training everybody went through was very rigorous and it paid off."

Feb. 17, 12:20 p.m. ET: The ship sinks 20 minutes after beginning to list.

Feb. 17-18. For the next 40 hours, the survivors float in the South Atlantic amid strong winds, heavy rain and waves up to four metres high, collecting rainwater to drink and keeping a lookout for rescuers. Some life-rafts are punctured, forcing students to bail out water for 40 hours. "We were in a 20-person raft with, I think, 22 people," says Drake Hicks, 18. "We sat there a long time. We kept two people on watch, two people bailing water out of our raft. It rained a lot so we would collect rainwater and drink rainwater basically and just keep lookout and just hope for the best."

Feb. 18, 2 a.m. ET: The Brazilian navy claims it receives a distress call from the SV Concordia and immediately tries to contact the ship by radio. But the students and staff have no idea if their ship's distress signal has been received. "We thought our signal had failed and nobody knew and it could be weeks before we were saved, and just the worst life-or-death thoughts are going through our heads," says Keaton Farwell, 17.

Friends and families of 42 Canadian students whose teaching vessel sank off the coast of Brazil on Wednesday wait for them at Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Monday morning. (Dave Seglins/CBC)Feb. 18, 6 a.m. ET: West Island College International, the school that owns the SV Concordia, first gets word of the sinking when it is contacted by the rescue co-ordination centre in Halifax, which has heard from Brazilian authorities. It is told that the Concordia's emergency locator beacon has been activated and that it should contact its ship. School officials attempt to make contact with the SV Concordia and get no answer.

Feb. 18, evening: A Brazilian military plane spots the life-rafts. By the time its vessel arrives hours later, everyone has been picked up by two merchant ships responding to the request for help.

Feb. 19: The students, teachers and crew spend Friday night on two merchant vessels.

Feb. 20: The 64 survivors of the Canadian sailing vessel Concordia began to arrive at a military base in Rio de Janeiro.

Feb. 21: Students board a bus in Rio de Janeiro to make the five-hour trip to the airport in Sao Paulo to catch a flight for Canada, leaving the non-Canadian survivors behind.

Feb. 22, 5:43 a.m. ET: An Air Canada flight carrying the 42 students from Sao Paulo arrives at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. The students are home at last.