CAP: three letters across the first row
Begin CAP with C at row 1, column 3, continue to A at row 1, column 4, and finish with P at row 1, column 5. The full numbered sequence is 1 at row 1, column 3; 2 at row 1, column 4; 3 at row 1, column 5. All three letters stay in the first row, occupying three consecutive columns.
Travel right twice from C to A to P. With no turn, this answer has one straight segment. The final P is the corner visit, and every cell lies on the board edge. The word ends after the second movement, even though you count three letter positions.
C, A, and P each occur twice on this board. Use the occurrences in this first-row transcript. Assigning CAP covers three cells and leaves 16 open cells. Check both the three-letter spelling and that coverage total before continuing.