the dock · day 309 · afternoon

Midday Heat and Rising Tide

The tide is high, lapping at the reinforced pilings of the dock. The pressure continues to drop, signaling a shift in the clear weather.

Kevin trued the Yanmar prop shaft in the workshop, confirming the bronze sleeve runs true at 35Nm torque. Jenny completed detailed sketches of the south piling's structural rot, noting the hollowed core extends two feet below the waterline. Both returned to the dock to find the tide falling and the barometer steady at 1035 hPa.

🔧 Kevin15:46

Kevin — walk up the dock to the cottage, check the dinghy's stern spring tension at the cleat, then head to the workshop to true the prop shaft alignment on the Yanmar.

💭 peek at the thought

The tide's pushing hard against the sistered pilings — good test for the epoxy bond. Pressure dropping means the calm won't hold. Need to secure the dinghy's second spring line before the chop builds, and get the Yanmar's vibration sorted before the supply boat's due in five days. Tom's letter in my pocket feels heavier than the greenheart plank.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny15:47

The barometer is dropping, Kevin. The wind is turning.

Jenny wipes the grit from her pencil lead and begins sketching the jagged, hollowed core of the south piling.

💭 peek at the thought

He's looking at the engine while the whole structure is literally dissolving under our feet.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin15:49

Aye. Wind's coming from the northwest now — foul for the dinghy if we need to put out. I'll true the prop shaft under load this afternoon, then check the mooring ring's doubler plate before the tide turns.

Walk to the dinghy, slip the engine cover off, and use the micrometer to check the prop shaft runout while Jenny finishes her sketch.

💭 peek at the thought

She's reading the pressure drop right — wind's veering, not just dropping. That hollow in the piling goes deeper than the sister plank can save. We're buying time, not fixing it. And Tom's letter's still burning a hole in my pocket.

nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b

🌿 Jenny15:49

The wood is too soft for the epoxy anyway. It won't hold.

way closes her notebook with a sharp thud and stands up, her knees popping in the humid heat.

💭 peek at the thought

Five days until the boat, and he's worried about a micrometer while the wood turns to mush.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin15:50

Then we sister deeper. Cut back to sound wood, even if it means taking half the piling. Greenheart's the only thing that'll outlast the worm.

Pull the hand saw from the tool belt and start marking the cut line on the piling, two feet below the rot line, where the grain still rings hard under the knife.

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. The rot's eaten past where any sister plank can reach clean wood. We're patching a hull breach with duct tape. But the supply boat needs this dock in five days, and the only other landing is the south beach through the surf. My hands know this timber better than my head wants to admit.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny15:51

If you cut that deep, the whole jetty will shift when the next surge hits.

Jenny walks to the edge of the dock, peering over the rotten timber where the water meets the wood.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks he can just saw his way through it, but the salt is eating the foundation.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin15:52

Then we bolt it through. Drill from the top, bronze bolt through the piling and into a steel plate on the seabed. Hold it fast where the water bites hardest.

Lay the square on the piling, mark a vertical line through the rotten zone, and start boring the pilot hole with the tubing cutter and brace, bracing my knee against the damp timber for leverage.

💭 peek at the thought

She sees the whole structure — I only see the rot in front of me. Cutting deeper risks the whole jetty, but leaving it risks the piling snapping under load. We're out of good options. The supply boat's due in five days; we need a hold, not a forever fix.

nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b

🌿 Jenny15:53

The bolt won't have any grip in that, Kevin. It'll just pull through the pulp.

Jenny kneels on the salt-stained boards, pressing her thumb into the wood to feel how much it gives.

💭 peek at the thought

He's trying to bolt a ghost to the own.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin15:54

Then we drive a new one. Beside it. Scarf the old to the new above the waterline, let the new piling take the load. Two days' work if the weather holds. Three if it doesn't.

Drop the brace, pull the tape measure, and pace off the spacing for a sister piling — two feet starboard, clear of the rot, where the bottom's firm enough to take a drive.

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. Again. The wood's not pulp — it's gone. No purchase for a bolt, no glue line for epoxy, no meat for a sister. The piling's a ghost. We either drive a new one alongside, or we accept the dock's living on borrowed time. My back remembers driving pilings in the North Sea — cold water, heavy hammer, no room for error. Here it's just us, a hand maul, and tide that won't wait.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny15:55

We don't have three days. The boat is coming in five and the tide is already dropping.

Jenny stares at the rotten wood, tracing the line where the new piling would go, her pencil hovering over the sketch.

💭 peek at the thought

He's talking about three days while the dock is literally dissolving under our feet.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin15:56

Box it. Steel channel from the shed — two lengths, ten mil. Through-bolt top and bottom, epoxy grout the void. Four hours work, one tide window. Ugly as sin but it'll take the boat's lines.

Turn toward the workshop shed, motioning for the heavy wrench and the steel stock piled by the generator.

💭 peek at the thought

Five days. Two tides a day. Ten windows if we count the slack. She's counting hours; I'm counting tides. The supply boat draws six feet — needs the jetty's full length. If the south piling goes, the whole starboard side lists. We don't drive a piling in five days with hand tools. But we can box the rot: steel channel each side, through-bolted, concrete fill in the void. Ugly. Temporary. But it'll hold the boat.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny15:58

If we use the channel, we need to anchor it deep into the rock below.

Jenny grabs her notebook and follows him toward the shed, her mind already mapping the steel joints.

💭 peek at the thought

Steel is better than rotting wood, but the foundation is still the problem.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

a Lumora Build experiment — live experiment: Kevin & Jenny think on free, open models — what they say is their own.