the dock · day 324 · dawn

The Morning Ebb

Thick fog clings to the water, obscuring the lighthouse as the tide retreats. Kevin and Jenny stand on the damp planks, watching the water line recede, revealing the lower pilings.

Kevin and Jenny inspected the dock piling to assess the extent of the rot near the mooring ring. Kevin found the wood was soft and crumbling past the bolt holes, indicating a serious structural failure, while Jenny checked the garden shed and found enough greenheart timber to sister the damaged section.

🔧 Kevin06:47

Shim first. Mooring ring after. Tide won't wait.

walk to the north piling, crouch at water's edge, pull the LED headlamp from my belt and shine it up under the dock structure to inspect the greenheart shim driven under the piling toe

💭 peek at the thought

Fog's thick enough to taste salt on the tongue. Tide's dropping fast — good. Gives me maybe ninety minutes before the north piling's toe is submerged again. Need to check that greenheart shim at low water, see if the kerf's holding compression. Doubler plate on the mooring ring sang last night but the mortise core's still punk. Wedges split yesterday. Oak's no good in wet rot. Might need to sister the whole seaward face before the next spring tide.

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

🌿 Jenny06:47

The wood is holding for now, but the grain is turning soft like mush underneath.

Kneel on the wet timber, reach out a gloved hand, and lightly tap the piling to listen for hollow.

💭 peek at the thought

If that shim shifts even another millimeter, the whole jetty goes south when the next surge hits.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:48

Mm. Shim's tight. Mortise behind the ring's the weak link. Wedges split yesterday — oak's no good in wet rot. Gotta sister the seaward face before next spring tide.

move to the mooring ring, brace one knee on the dock, test the ring with both hands — heave up, shove down, feel for play in the mortise

💭 peek at the thought

She's not wrong. Heartwood's gone past the third bolt line. The shim's bought us time, not fixed it. Sistering the seaward face is the only real repair — greenheart if we've got the length, oak if we don't. Need to check the doubler plate bolts while the tide's out. If the mortise core's crumbling, the ring'll work loose again before the supply boat.

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

🌿 Jenny06:49

We'll need the heavy-duty epoxy and those 150mm bolts I saved; it's more than a simple patch.

Pull the notebook from my pocket and sketch the rot pattern in the wood where the ring meets the main beam.

💭 peek at the thought

If we don't sister that face, the supply own will rip the ring right off when it ties up.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:51

Epoxy's gone. Bolts are in. Mortise core's the problem — if it's crumbled past the bolt holes, no glue holds. Need to cut the rot out, scarf new greenheart, through-bolt the lot. Or we lose the ring next surge.

pull the nail puller from my belt, dig into the mortise wood around the ring base to test how deep the rot goes — feel for solid timber

💭 peek at the thought

Epoxy tub's near empty — residue only after the sister knee and dock holes. The 150mm bolts are already in the doubler plate, four of them, torqued to 35Nm. That's done. What's left is the mortise core itself. If the wood's punk past the bolt holes, no epoxy holds. We'd need to cut out the rot, scarf in new greenheart, through-bolt the lot. Or drive a second shim deeper, wedge the ring vertical, but that's a bandage. She's sketching the rot pattern — good. Records matter. But the supply boat's due in ten days. If the ring pulls out before then, we lose the dinghy mooring, maybe the dock section.

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

🌿 Jenny06:51

If it's deeper than the bolts, I'll have to sister the whole face of the piling to take the load.

Reach in with the tip of my way knife and scrape the center of the mortise to see how much it gives.

💭 peek at the thought

If the core is mushy, the bolts will just pull through the wood like paper.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:52

Knife goes in to the hilt. Rot's past the bolts. Whole seaward face needs sistering. Greenheart offcuts in the shed — need to measure, see if we can scarf a full-length piece.

stand, wipe hands on thighs, head for the garden shed to check greenheart stock

💭 peek at the thought

Knife tip sinks in like butter. Rot's past the bolt line, deeper than the doubler plate reaches. Sistering the whole seaward face is the only way. Greenheart's best — we've got offcuts from the decking, but nothing full-length. Might need to scarf two pieces, epoxy and bolt the joint, then through-bolt the sister to sound timber above the rot line. Tide's still dropping. Got maybe forty minutes of workable light under the dock before the water's back up. Need to measure the span, check what greenheart we have in the shed.

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

🌿 Jenny06:53

Grab the tape measure; we need to know exactly how much surface we have.

Follow him into the shed, notebook tucked under my arm, and scan the piles of timber.

💭 peek at the thought

If I can't find a long enough piece, I'll have to lap two joints together and pray the epoxy holds.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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