"Far downward, he glimpsed monstrous waves on a sea gone white. A skirling deepened to a cannonade. The hull shuddered. Darkness and fury engulfed him. Rain hammered like bullets. The boat dropped, battled upward again, pitched and yawed." (p. 20)
A Poul Anderson character fights the elements. On a planet of Epsilon Eridani, he flies to rescue a fellow explorer who has crash landed. The downed man theorizes that a native germ has catalyzed a reaction with the supposedly inert material of his flyer. This is a common theme in Anderson's works, e.g., "Pride" (also see here) and "Starfog" - how to cope with the unexpected in an unfamiliar environment. What can go wrong when exploring a planet? - Anything.
The round trip to Epsilon Eridani takes a few days of ship time and fifty years of Earth time. And how many years do the explorers spend at Epsilon Eridani? They accept that their relatives will have died and it is considered tactless to refer to them. That makes sense.
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