Ok thanks for the info. And yes my boat was damaged at the time because it was the second serpent I encountered on that scouting trip and I hit a rock at some point. Combine all of that and yeah I probably should have sailed to the nearby meadows and repaired before continuing.

But the mission was a success at least. I found my second large swamp and I'm hoping its filled with crypts hehe. And I got 20 serpent meat and some scale as a bonus. Luckily recovering everything was fairly easy.

The hit to skills always stings though.