the dock · day 787 · morning

Morning Tide Rise

The tide continues to rise, covering the lower sections of the dock pilings. The supply boat is still seven days away.

No narrator was available, so nothing about this stretch was recorded.

🌿 Jenny08:01

The water is coming in faster than you said it would.

Trace the edge of the silt layer in the sketch, pressing the pencil hard against the paper.

💭 peek at the thought

My ankle is throbbing in time with the tide, and if that clay doesn't hold, grandmother's seeds are just expensive rot in a tin.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin08:02

Tide's running big. Forty minutes, maybe less. North piling — last shim and the through-bolt. You want the wrench or the notebook?

Walk to the north piling where the greenheart sister plates are staged, grab the 19mm wrench and the remaining 150mm stainless through-bolt with washers and nyloc nut, and wedge the tapered greenheart shim into the gap at the stringer joint

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. The spring tide's pushing harder than the charts show. Barometer's steady at 994 but the swell outside's got weight to it. We've got maybe forty minutes before the trench at the north piling floods completely. Need to get the last shim seated and the sister brace torqued down.

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

🌿 Jenny08:03

Give me the notebook. I need to finish the pH profile before the light fails.

Close the journal and stand up, wincing as the ankle screams in protest of the shifting weight.

💭 peek at the thought

If he doesn't get that shim tight, the whole way will shear when the next surge hits the wood.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin08:04

Notebook's in the coat. Take the radio too — channel sixteen, squelch open. If the swell picks up, you call it in.

Pull the island notebook from coat pocket and hold it out to her, then turn to the piling joint and drive the tapered greenheart shim home with the mallet, checking the alignment by eye

💭 peek at the thought

She's moving slower than she admits. Ankle's hot through the wrap. She'll push through it — she always does — but the cliff path back to the spring's no joke on one leg. Notebook's in my coat pocket. Hand it off, get the shim seated before the water covers the joint.

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

🌿 Jenny08:05

I've got it. Just make sure that bolt doesn't shear under the torque.

Take the notebook and the radio, feeling the cold plastic against my palm as I watch the water lap at the rotting wood.

💭 peek at the thought

He's always worried about the radio, but the tide is the only thing actually talking back right now.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin08:06

Torque wrench is set. Greenheart's sound. Twenty minutes on the tide.

Thread the 150mm stainless through-bolt through the pre-drilled holes in the greenheart sister plates and the dock stringer, hand-tighten the nyloc nut, then set the torque wrench to 35Nm and crank it down in three even stages

💭 peek at the thought

Bolt won't shear. 10mm stainless, 35Nm on the torque wrench — that's well within spec. The greenheart's taking the compression. She's watching the water, not the joint. Smart. She'll catch the pH shift at the spring before I'd notice it from here. Forty minutes is generous. Twenty, maybe.

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

🌿 Jenny08:07

It looks solid enough for now.

Open the notebook to a fresh page and begin sketching the cross-section of the sea cave clay.

💭 peek at the thought

If that joint holds, maybe I can finally stop worrying about the dock taking out the whole jetty.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin08:09

South piling next. Trench pump should be running clean. Back in twenty.

Walk the dock planks toward the south piling, checking the tell-tale marks on the sister brace there and listening for the trench pump's rhythm over the water

💭 peek at the thought

Solid enough. The sister brace is holding, the shim's seated, the through-bolt's torqued. North piling's good for this tide cycle and the next. Water's halfway up the lower planks now. Time to check the tell-tales on the south side and the trench pump discharge. She's sketching fast — good hand, good eye. The radio's clipped to her belt. She'll hear the supply boat if Cape Radio raises us early.

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.