(By the way, proofreaders check copy. Fact checkers check facts.)

It takes twenty to thirty minutes to take down what they had up and they dropped sail in a confused sea with 4m wave heights on a black night. So, yes, they were ten miles away by the time they could turn back into a 20-30 kt. wind and all that water to find a drifting flyspeck on the horizon. They backtracked with the computer but imagine what it must have been like out there.

Also, these sailors are usually not tethered. They view the hazard of not clipping as part of the job. They find it too restrictive while working on deck. I'll bet it is. If you clipped, you'd be clipping every time you turned around.

Hans was 32 and he was the man who put the crew of twenty-somethings together to make this race. So, when "the kids" set a monohull record not long into the race it was absolutely amazing. So, the loss was not only of a crewmember but the crewmember that was the reason they were all there and he was the mentor for everyone on board. By all reports the young crew performed an incredibly difficult recovery in big seas in the dark which was something worthy of the most seasoned offshore sailors. This is their first trip around. These kids are good. Hans must have been some teacher. He is survived by his partner Petra, their daughter Bobbi, and the Petra's baby bump.

That's hard.