ON THE ISLAND IN Denmark where the oldest oak tree in Europe grows, a young boatbuilder nicknamed "the perfectionist" crafted a boat with his hands. In 1936, the boat was finished and her journey began.

Seventy years later, in Port Townsend, Washington-just minutes after a near catastrophe was averted in the marina outside her office window-around-the-world sailor Kaci Cronkhite opened an email. A Danish spidsgatter named Pax was for sale in Victoria, British Columbia. After years of experience around boats, Kaci knew better than to buy a wooden boat. But-smitten by the buxom curves of Pax and inspired by a life in the wind-she did.

The journey that brought the two together became a quest that connected families in three countries with history that had been lost.

What Kaci didn't know-what no one knew-was where and how far Pax had journeyed, what she survived those seven decades and what those who loved her would always remember.