" And then there was the hidden hope she told no one about, not even Bea—that maybe someday there would be a man who understood her, who allowed her to be untamed, who understood her love of the sea, and who might love her despite her freewheeling ways. Someday, some way . . . Torn by conflicted inner sides of herself—one that felt she could never settle down and become a man’s wife, and one that secretly dreamed of romance. But who would want a woman who wanted to work like a man, who probably could never hold her tongue, and who couldn’t pretend to be something she wasn’t? "

― Ann Howard Creel , The Whiskey Sea