Mk 3:9a ... And he-said to-the disciples of-him that a-little boat should-stand-ready for-him, ...

Verse 9 has 2 phrases and 16 narrator words. The 1st phrase has these 9 words ... Kai eipen tois mathētais autou hina ploiarion proskarterē autō (And he-said to-the disciples of-him that a-little boat should-stand-ready for-him, ...).

The 9 narrator words are clockwise starting bottom left. This verse introduces the reader to the "little boat" (ploiarion) that Jesus uses to cross from one side of the sea to the other with the larger boat used by his disciples. The verb proskartereo, from the preposition pros (before, at, by) and the verb kartereo (to continue all the time in a place) implies a boat "always standing ready" for Jesus to get in. The diagram shows that Jesus and the little boat are tangent to and held up by the words of text, the two white triangles, and the two standing disciples, three sets of legs standing the little boat up. The above string of 9 words just happens to be tangent to "tois mathētais" (to the disciples), "ploiarion" (a litttle boat), and "autō" (of him), meaning Jesus!