Rudder Jam

Of course I'm writing this possibly weeks before we will arrive to Mexico and can post it with our next WiFi access.
We left Marathon, Florida about 10 am Sunday the 12th. We were to meet the Canadian brothers out at Sombrero Reef but as we approached it decided to call and tell them we were going to just keep on going. Since we sail faster but they motor faster we really weren't planning to actually stay together. We were motor sailing with fairly light NW winds. About 3 miles out past the Reef Marker the wind was more directly behind us and in the process of the captain attempting to rig the main for a tailwind the helm was left unattended briefly and a wave tossed the boat in such a way that the unattended rudder was forced beyond its maximum and got jammed hard to starboard. 90 degrees to the keel line actually. This brought great drama as the captain suddenly made a Mayday Mayday Mayday distress call giving the boat name, location and our loss of rudder. Now I'm no expert but our lives were not in imminent danger and I believe a Pan Pan Pan would have been the proper distress call ? At any rate a power boat of sport fishermen that we had passed received our call and relayed it to the Key West Coast Guard and Sea Tow out of Marathon of which captain was a member. It's kind of like AAA but for boats. We received a call from the Coast Guard for our status and got confirmation Sea Tow was on route and 30 minutes out. The sport fishing boat came first in response to our Mayday and relayed to Coast Guard that no lives were in danger and with Sea Tow on route received Coast Guard clearance to leave our location and get back to fishing.
The Sea Tow boat saw our stuck rudder and at first attempted to get a loop around it to attempt pulling it straight back. This was unsuccessful so we connected his towline to our bow and he began towing us back. At some point the rudder did snap free!! The Captain decided to take things apart and we were able to fix our rudder. The chain had jumped off the sprocket as part of the malfunction.
Truthfully I was prepared with the notion of getting towed back this time to Marathon Boatyard for repairs of who knows how many more days waiting for another weather window. I thought I might even bag it for crewing this winter and take a bus up to Bryson City, North Carolina to visit my high school buddy Arnie who I've not seen in decades.
Anyway we radioed the Sea Tow captain and said we had it fixed and released the line. We requested he hang with us a mile or so to make sure the rudder was functioning properly.... then continued on our way. This whole episode took 2 or 3 hours I suppose.
We took 4 hour shifts at the helm for the 29 hour crossing of the Florida Straights Gulfstream. A good 12 hours or so in the middle was straight sailing but we had to again motor sail the final 22 NM.
I'm loving the change of scenery!!