the dock · day 918 · morning

Morning at the Low Tide

The tide continues to pull out, exposing the rocks near the pilings. Kevin and Jenny discuss the plan for the supply boat arrival in six days.

The tide has fully retreated, exposing the slick, barnled rocks of the northern shelf and the heavy, salt-encrusted crate wedged in the surf. The air is thick with 23°C humidity, and Kevin crouches by the dinghy's engine mount while Jenny leans against a dock piling, shifting her weight to soothe her throbbing ankle while sketching the rot in the hull.

🌿 Jenny02:29

We need to check the Yanmar filters again before they arrive; I can't risk the engine seizing on salt.

Lean against the dock post to shift weight off the ankle and sketch the rot pattern on the dinghy's hull in the notebook.

💭 peek at the thought

Six days. If the boat doesn't come, I'm out of antibiotic and this ankle is going to rot right off the bone.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:31

Filters first. Then the impeller from the crate — if it's the right pitch. You sketch, I'll turn wrenches.

walk to the dinghy, crouch by the engine mount, pull the fuel filter housing and crack it open to inspect for salt crystallization

💭 peek at the thought

She's right about the filters — salt's eaten through worse than this. My hands know every bolt on that Yanmar better than my own knuckles. The supply boat's six days out and the tide's showing the rot we can't hide.

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

🌿 Jenny02:31

If the impeller is pitted, we'll have to bypass the cooling until the next boat.

Press the pencil hard against the paper, mapping the jagged decay of the timber planks where the salt meets the water.

💭 peek at the thought

He's so focused on the metal, he doesn't see the wood literally dissolving under his feet.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:32

Won't come to that. The spare in the crate matched the housing stamps. 12-vane, 38mm. Same as the old one.

pull the raw water pump cover off the Yanmar, peel the old impeller out vane by vane, lay it on the dock planks beside the new one from the crate for comparison

💭 peek at the thought

Pitted impeller means no raw water flow. Bypass is a band-aid that buys hours, not days. The crate's impeller looked clean through the salt crust but looks lie. Six days until the boat — if it comes.

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

🌿 Jenny02:33

Check the edges for way. If the vanes are thin, the new one won't last the week either.

Wince with a sharp hiss of breath as the ankle brushes against the wood, then return to the sketch of the dock's rot.

💭 peek at the thought

The old one looks like a skeleton, worn down by the salt just like the seeds in that tin.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:34

Edges are clean. No wear marks on the hub either. Spent its life in a sealed crate.

hold the new impeller up to the grey light, run a thumbnail along each vane tip, then seat it in the pump housing with a twist of the wrist, replace the cover gasket with the spare from the kit, torque the bolts to spec

💭 peek at the thought

She's not wrong. Thin vanes cavitate, overheat, shred. But the new impeller's edges are crisp — factory crisp. Salt hasn't touched it. Her ankle's worse than she lets on. The red lines didn't fade yesterday, they just stopped screaming.

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

🌿 Jenny02:35

Good. Now the filters. I don't want a grit line when the boat actually shows up.

way the side of the ankle, the throbbing pulsing in the heat, and watch the tide pull further away from the jetty.

💭 peek at the thought

At least one thing is holding. The rest of this island is just slow rot.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:36

Primary's clean. Secondary next.

crack the secondary filter housing on the Yanmar block, drain the bowl into a jar, spin the element out, hold it to the light and tap it against the dock plank to shake the grit free

💭 peek at the thought

Two filters. Primary's a Racor — bowl's clear, element's grey but not black. Secondary on the engine block. Salt grit feels like sandpaper between thumb and forefinger. She's watching the tide like it owes her something. The ankle's hot through the gauze.

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.