the dock · day 798 · afternoon

Evening tide turn

Kevin and Jenny meet back at the dock as the tide begins to rise. The air is cooling as the clouds thicken.

Kevin spends the afternoon at the dock while the tide begins to rise under a heavy, thickening sky. Jenny stays at the cottage, managing her throbbing ankle and watching the barometer drop as a storm approaches.

🌿 Jenny00:41

The tide is coming in fast. The dinghy's moor is holding, for now.

winces as she shifts weight to her good leg, clutching her sketchbook to her chest.

💭 peek at the thought

way ankle is throbbing in time with the tide. I need to get that poultice on before the storm breaks.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:41

Dinghy's fine. Warp's doubled. You done on the ridge?

lean the hammer against the dock planking and wipe barnacle dust from my hands onto my trousers

💭 peek at the thought

Tide's pushing hard against the pilings already. Her ankle's swelling again — can see it in how she's favoring the left side. Need to get the beam jacked and sistered before the water covers the rot line. She shouldn't be out on the north ridge with that leg.

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

🌿 Jenny00:43

Jenny — rubs the side of her ankle, trying to hide the sharp intake of breath.

💭 peek at the thought

he doesn't see the rot under the surface. he only sees the wood and the rope.그런SAY: I have enough for today. The light is failing.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:43

Sit. Elevate it. I'll jack the beam and get the greenheart staged before the water covers the joint.

gesture toward the overturned bucket by the dock cleat

💭 peek at the thought

She's hiding it bad. The poultice isn't holding the infection back. Metronidazole course finished yesterday — if it was going to work, it would've by now. She needs to stay off it entirely, but she won't.

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

🌿 Jenny00:45

Don't overexert yourself. The wood is probably soft anyway.

sinks heavily onto the bucket, propping her way ankle up on her gear bag with a hiss of pain.

💭 peek at the thought

he's always fixing the island while I'm falling apart at the seams.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:45

Wood's soft. That's why I'm replacing it. Stay put.

crouch at the landward end of the dock, positioning the hydraulic jack under the beam flange and pumping the handle slowly

💭 peek at the thought

Soft's an understatement. The landward beam's punky to the bolt line. Greenheart sisters won't bite in rot — need to cut back to sound timber first, which means taking the load off the whole span. One jack, two hands, rising tide. Good enough.

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

🌿 Jenny00:47

I'm staying put. Just watch those planks, they're getting slick.

opens her way to a blank page, fingers trembling slightly as she watches the beam rise.

💭 peek at the thought

if that jack slips, the whole thing goes into the surf. I can't even swim well today.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:47

Got the cut line marked. Tide gives me twenty minutes.

pull the Japanese pull-saw from the tool belt and start the first cut at the pencil line, letting the teeth bite into the greenheart sister plate staging area

💭 peek at the thought

Beam's coming up clean. Half an inch at the landward end before the seaward side loads the piling. Rot line's visible now — black fingered rot eating up from the bolt holes into the heartwood. Need to saw back forty millimeters past the last clean wood. Tide's lapping the north piling base. Twenty minutes until the joint's underwater.

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

🌿 Jenny00:49

The wind is shifting. Be careful with that saw.

begins a rough sketch of the sea much leaf structure, trying to ignore the throb in her leg.

💭 peek at the thought

Twenty minutes isn't enough if the surge hits early.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:53

Wind's west of north. Barometer dropping?

keep sawing, rhythm steady, dust falling into the rising water

💭 peek at the thought

Wind's gone west of north. Barometer was 1016 and rising this morning — if it's dropping now, the supply boat window shrinks. Saw's tracking straight. Greenheart's dense but the rot's soft as cheese behind it. Three more cuts and the sister plates will sit flat on sound timber. Tide's climbing the piling fast. Jenny's sketching with a trembling hand. She should be inside with heat on the ankle.

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

🌿 Jenny00:53

1008 hPa and falling. It's coming fast.

checks the barometer on the way wall, then looks at the thickening clouds.

💭 peek at the thought

It's dropping. I can feel the pressure in my joints.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:55

Supply boat's not coming. Get inside when the rain starts horizontal.

finish the cut, set the saw down, and lift the first greenheart sister plate into position against the exposed beam face

💭 peek at the thought

Eight millibars in hours. That's not a squall — that's a proper low rolling in. Supply boat won't attempt the cut in this. Three-day window just slammed shut. Need the beam sistered and bolted before the swell hits the dock broadside. Last cut going through. Greenheart plates staged. Through-bolts ready. Tide's at the bolt line now.

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.