Saturday in Baltimore: the sun shone bright, the sky gleamed blue, and I carried my real camera to the Inner Harbor where the historic wooden USS Constellation and the USS Torsk submarine are moored as museum ships.

Rope pulls me with its usefulness: twisted for strength and elasticity, fibrous for friction to hold itself tight. Tough enough to haul ships and sails, malleable enough to bend, wrap, curl.

I was captivated by ropes as thick as my wrist, strands twisted into tidy cables, coils bleaching in the sun on the decks of ships, cordage so strong it can secure a ship that displaces 1400 tons of water.

You can see the weight of the ropes as they drape over posts on deck. They are hefty. Heavy. Organic and strong.

All those beautiful ropes made me want to spend more time on boats. I miss them.

Cord: Several yarns hard-twisted together.

Cordage: All twisted rope of whatever material or size.

Line: A common name for various cordage, without specific meaning, as fishline, clew line, heaving line, spring line, tow line, clothesline, mooring line.

Rope: Anything in cordage over one inch in circumference.

Yarn: A number of fibers twisted together.

— The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford W. Ashley

For the month of April, I will publish a 10-minute free write each day, initiated by a prompt from my prompt box. Minimal editing. No story. Just thoughts spilling onto the page. Trying to get back into the writing habit.