"Let it go," he had said. With a last, withered look at the town stretched out behind her, she boarded the ship, slipping the purser coins and signing her name as her father had instructed. With mounting anxiety, she took up a place at the deck's edge, resting her slender hands on the hard wooden railing. Shouts of the crew sounded around her as they prepared to depart. Coiled rope was retrieved and pulled taut, orders were called out from every angle. Sarah looked down into the murky water below, wondering how the wind would feel when the ship was at full sail.