Greetings From New Orleans ,
Another River Term rather inadvertently came to mind this morning that I thought that some of you that own and operate boats may be interested in . After I had just climed up the ship's pilot ladder , in the dark , I almost tripped over the ship's aft spring line that had just been " Flaked " out on deck . " Flaking a line " is simply laying a mooring line out on deck in long straight lines with the bight of the line laid on top of the adajacent line . The purpose of this procedure is to allow the line to be sent out in a timly fashion , it lessons the chances of the line getting fouled on a deck fitting and last but not least it prevents kinks or A _ _ Holes , as some in the Deck Department affectionately refer to them as . Once again this is something that you may consider the next time you make preparations for a landing and have the space to lay your lines out .
Food For Thought !
Smoothe Sailing !
Ted davisson


Yet another term for those "kinks" is "hockles", though the one you refer to is certainly more common. (In both senses of the word.)