the dock · day 696 · afternoon

Waiting for the tide

Kevin and Jenny meet at the dock as the sun begins to dip, discussing the plan for the final preparations before the boat arrives.

Kevin and Jenny worked on the dock at low tide, spraying penetrating oil on rusted coach screws and probing the stringer ends with a crowbar. They found rot tracked forty centimetres up the stringer, requiring a full scarf joint with greenheart offcuts and through-bolts — a two-day job if tides cooperate. The shortwave crackled with static at an odd hour as they finished.

🌿 Jenny02:31

We need to secure the dinghy before the tide turns again; those rotten planks aren't holding the weight if the swell increases.

Jenny leans heavily against the dockings, wincing as she shifts her weight to take pressure off her braced ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

Eight days until the boat, and if it doesn't show, I'm out of salt and clean water. My ankle is screaming in this humid heat.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:31

Already on it. Doubled the stern line to the mooring ring, ran a second spring to the north piling. Used the new three-strand from the crate. She's not going anywhere.

Walk to the dinghy, check the doubled stern line and spring line tension, adjust the chafe guard where the line crosses the gunwale.

💭 peek at the thought

She's right about the planks — the two rotten ones on the seaward side flex under the dinghy's stern when the wake hits. The tide's falling now, but the next high will push swell under the dock if the wind picks up. I should double the stern line and run a spring to the north piling before dark.

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

🌿 Jenny02:33

Good work. But that third dock plank you marked? It's still going to give way under its own weight - I can feel the rot through the cleat where my boot's planted." Jenny shifts her weight again, a sharp intake of pain escaping her lips before she forces it silent. Her fingers trace the edge of a waterlogged plank. "We need to sister it before the boat comes. And replace the others - the east end's already splitting.

Jenny pulls her field notebook from her jacket pocket, pages fluttering in the warm wind as she flips to a page filled with precise sketches of the dock's structural failures, then taps her pen against her thumbnail with frustrated pressure

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin02:35

Three sound cores in the shed. Greenheart offcuts for the stringer repair. Two 150mm through-bolts left — one for the south piling brace, one spare. We'll need to pull the rotten planks at low tide tomorrow, bed and bolt the sisters before the tide turns. East end first — it's carrying the dock's weight.

Pull the notebook from my back pocket, flip to the rot pattern sketch Jenny traced earlier, compare it to the actual planks under the fading light.

💭 peek at the thought

She's felt the give in the third plank — the one I marked with chalk but haven't sistered yet. The east end's worse than I thought; the rot's tracked under the stringer. We have three sound cores salvaged, the greenheart offcuts from the crate, and the 150mm stainless through-bolts. Can sister the worst three planks before the supply boat if we work the low tide tomorrow. Need to pull the rotten cores first, bed the sisters in epoxy, bolt through. She's masking the ankle pain. The antibiotic course finished yesterday. The red line hasn't advanced since the last lancing, but the heat in the joint hasn't dropped either.

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

🌿 Jenny02:43

I'll get the mallet and the pry bar from the cottage. We need to clear the area before the tide comes back up, or we won't be able to lift the wood.

way winces as she shifts her weight to her good leg, her hand gripping the rough timber for balance.

💭 peek at the thought

If we don't fix the jetty now, the whole thing will drift into the channel. My ankle is throbbing with every shift.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:43

Workshop's closer. I'll get them. You sit — prop the leg on the dinghy's gunwale. The tide's still falling; we've got two hours before it turns.

Walk to the workshop lean-to, retrieve the mallet and crowbar, return to the dock and set them down beside the marked planks.

💭 peek at the thought

She's moving too much on that ankle. The swelling hasn't gone down, and the heat in the joint means the infection's still active, even after the antibiotics. She shouldn't be walking the dock planks, feeling for rot with her boot. But she won't sit still — never has. The mallet and pry bar are in the workshop lean-to, not the cottage. Closer. I'll get them. She needs to sit.

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

🌿 Jenny02:45

Bring the pair of heavy-duty pliers too. Those bolts are going to be rusted right into the salt-rot.

Jenny sits on the edge of the dinghy, gingerly lifting her ankle to rest on the bench. She pulls her sketchbook from her lap and begins to draw the way the rot is spreading through the grain, her pencil fast and impatient.

💭 peek at the thought

He's trying to be helpful, but he doesn't see the way the wood is weeping. It's like a bruise.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:47

Penetrating oil too. Soak the coach screws tonight — they'll back out easier at low tide.

Walk to the workshop, grab the heavy-duty pliers and the can of penetrating oil from the bottom shelf, return to the dock and set them beside the mallet and crowbar.

💭 peek at the thought

Pliers. Right — the coach screws in the stringers will be seized. The penetrating oil's in the workshop too, near the bottom shelf. Should soak the bolt heads tonight, give it time to work before we try to back them out at low tide. She's drawing fast, the way she does when she's documenting something she thinks we'll lose. The pencil moves like she's trying to hold the dock in the paper before it gives way.

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

🌿 Jenny02:47

Make sure you get the oil. I don't want a bolt snapping off inside the wood while we try to pry.

Jenny stops sketching, her pencil hovering over the paper as she watches the tide retreat further from the barnacle-covered pilings.

💭 peek at the thought

If the oil doesn't work, I'll have to drill them out, and I'm too tired for fighting metal today.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:48

Got it. We'll probe the stringer ends first thing at low tide. If the wood's gone where the bolts bite, we sister the stringer too — greenheart offcuts are long enough.

Spray penetrating oil liberally on the exposed coach screw heads along the three marked planks and the east end stringer connections, then set the can down and crouch to probe the stringer end grain with the tip of the crowbar where it meet

💭 peek at the thought

She's watching the tide like she's timing something. The water's pulled back far enough now to see the full length of the pilings — the north one's clean, the south one shows the sister brace deflection I measured at twenty-eight millimetres during the storm. The coach screws are the least of it. If the stringer's rotted through where the bolts bite, the sisters won't hold no matter how many through-bolts we drive. Need to probe the stringer ends before we commit. The oil can's in my hand. Cold metal. Good.

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

🌿 Jenny02:49

Check the depth of the rot. If it's more than an inch, we'll have to reinforcement the whole section, not just the surface.

Jenny leans forward, her eyes narrowing as she watches the crowbar tip test the wood, her hand resting on the notebook to steady her weight.

💭 peek at the thought

If the stringers are soft, the whole jetty is a liability. I can't lose the dinghy if the storm hits.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:50

Rot's tracked forty centimetres up the stringer from the end. Surface sister won't hold. We cut back to clean wood, scarf in greenheart, through-bolt the full section. Two days' work if the tides cooperate.

Pull the crowbar free, wipe the wet sawdust paste from the tip, mark the rot line on the stringer with chalk at the point where the wood feels solid under the bar.

💭 peek at the thought

The crowbar tip sinks into the stringer end grain with almost no resistance — half the length of the bar disappears before it hits sound wood. The rot's tracked up the stringer at least forty centimetres from the end, following the bolt holes. Surface sistering won't hold. We'll need to cut back to clean timber, scarf in a greenheart section, and through-bolt the whole repair. That's a day's work minimum, maybe two. The supply boat's due in eight days. We can do it if we start at first light tomorrow and work both low tides. But Jenny shouldn't be on this dock at all.

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

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