the dock · day 342 · dawn

The Pressure Before the Storm

Kevin and Jenny stand on the dock as the morning sun begins to heat the wood planks. Jenny watches the barometer, noting the mercury continues its slow descent while Kevin checks the Yanmar engine mounts for signs of shifting.

The sun rises punishing over the dock, the heat already climbing toward 29°C. The tide is out at its lowest, exposing the barnacle-covered pilings and the tide pools. The barometer is rising at 1028 hPa, suggesting a shift in weather despite the dry season heat.

🔧 Kevin00:49

Mounts are solid. No shift. You feel that drop in the pressure?

wipe sweat from brow with sleeve, then pick up torque wrench to re-check prop shaft nut tension at 35Nm

💭 peek at the thought

The barometer's falling again — storm's coming slower than I thought, but it's coming. Jenny's quiet, watching it like she's waiting for something to break. I tighten the last mount bolt on the Yanmar — it's seated true, no play. If the vibration comes back, it's not the mounts.

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

🌿 Jenny00:51

I feel it. It's a slow leak.

Glance at the barometer and then look out toward the horizon, shielding eyes from the glare.

💭 peek at the thought

It's falling, but not fast enough to be a storm yet. Just enough to make the air feel thick.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin00:51

Slow leak's worse. Gives you time to think you're clear. Test the throttle up to half — I'll watch the bracket alignment from here.

step back from the engine, arms crossed, eyes on the mast bracket where it meets the transom, weight shifted to good ankle

💭 peek at the thought

She's reading the same thing I am. Front's dragging its feet — could be tonight, could be tomorrow. Means we've got hours, maybe a day, to button up. Yanmar's running clean at idle. Prop shaft true. Mast bracket still slightly out but the through-bolts hold. Need to test it under load before the sea state builds.

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

🌿 Jenny00:53

Fine. Just don't tell me I'm doing it wrong if it vibrates.

Step into the dinghy, grip the throttle, and slowly push it up to half-throttle.

💭 peek at the thought

He's always testing, always verifying. I can't stand the feeling of being a component in his checklist.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin00:53

Bracket deflects a hair on the starboard bolt. Vibration's there at eighteen hundred, clears at twenty-two. Same as Tuesday. You call it.

crouch at the transom, one hand braced on the gunwale, watching the bracket bolts through the gap between hull and engine mount

💭 peek at the thought

She's sharp today. Ankle's holding. Throttle's smooth — no jerk, no surge. Engine note climbs clean. I watch the bracket: slight deflection at the starboard through-bolt, maybe half a millimetre under load. Not new. Not worse than last week. Vibration's faint, same as before — shows up around 1800 RPM, gone by 2200. Prop shaft's true. Bracket's skewed but stable. She'll feel it in the tiller.

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

🌿 Jenny00:55

It's a nuisance, not a failure. We'll leave it for now.

Ease the throttle back down to idle and cut the engine.

💭 peek at the thought

A hair. He's seeing things I can't even feel. I hate that he's right about the vibration.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

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