Day 490

Fair point.

walk to the dinghy and ease the mooring line off the cleat, feeding two feet of slack before making it fast again

None.

walk to the rain tank and check the float valve, then tap the side to hear how full it sounds — about three-nine-oh litres by the weight of it

Sit down. Now.

take the notebook from her lap and set it on the step beside her, then pull the folding stool out from under the porch and guide her onto it

Let me redo the poultice. Fresh mint, crushed leaf, a splash of vinegar to draw it out.

walk to the herb tray by the kitchen door, snip a sprig of mint, and crush it between my palms before mixing it with a spoonful of vinegar in a clean shell

Morning.

Walk to the porch door, pull on boots, grab the heavy wrench and nail puller from the tool shelf, and head down to the dock to inspect the mooring ring mortise and greenheart sister plank at low tide.

(nod) Be back in ten.

Step onto the south beach, walk the exposed sand toward the dock pilings, crouch at the mooring ring, and probe the oak wedges with the nail puller to see if they've shifted since yesterday's high tide.

Dock's sound. Wedges holding.

Walk back up the beach to the cottage, wipe salt off hands on trousers, and pull the Yanmar's decompression lever to spin it over slow — check compression, listen for the knock that was there before the sleeve.

She'll start.

Release decompression, grip the starter handle, and give it a sharp pull — cold start, first attempt.

(grunt) Air in the line.

Crack the injector line at the pump, pull decompression, spin the engine slow with the starter to bleed, then tighten, release decompression, and pull again.

Kevin — pump the starter slow to bleed the injector line, watching for clean fuel at the cracked fitting

Kevin — close the injector fitting, give the starter a firm pull to attempt a start

Kevin — let the Yanmar idle, log rpm and vibration in the notebook for tomorrow's comparison.

Jenny, I’m going to inspect the north pilings before the tide turns full.

walk up to the dock, crouch at the north end, and probe the rotted pilings with the crowbar to test for softness and depth of decay.

Rot's past the splash zone. Heartwood's gone. Need to sister it before the supply boat—can't risk the dock collapsing under their weight.

pull the crowbar free, wipe salt from the tip, and measure the rot depth with a knife blade to see how much sound timber's left above the waterline.

Greenheart's tough. If the cores held, we can sister with those. But we need low tide to bolt them proper—four hours out.

stand, brush sawdust from knees, and walk to the driftwood pile near the beach to check the crate planks for usable lengths.

Tools are in the shed—bolts, drill, epoxy. I'll get the planks. You rest that ankle until we're ready to lift.

jog to the driftwood tangle, heave aside plastic and bleached wood, and haul two greenheart planks from the crate onto the sand—inspect ends for rot with the knife tip.

Ends are sound. Heartwood held. Two twelve-footers—port and starboard of the piling. We'll bolt through at low slack.

drag the planks up the beach toward the dock, leaving them staged at the north corner, then fetch the heavy drill, 12mm auger bit, and stainless bolts from the shed.

Bolts on the porch, covered. Drill's charged. Epoxy tub's got dregs—enough for the bolt holes if we mix it thin.

set the drill and bit on the porch table under the tarp, pour the last of the epoxy into a clean tin, and add a splash of diesel to thin it for the holes.

On it. Hand me the bow line—I'll warp her to the winch post. You sit, keep the weight off.

grab the bow line from the dinghy and walk it forward to the winch post on the dock, taking the strain to pull the dinghy clear of the rising water.

Winch post's gone. I'll drag her up the beach by hand. You—get inside and off that ankle.

unclip the bow line from the winch post, coil it, then haul the dinghy bow-up onto the shingle beach above the tide line, using the keel as a skid.

Noted. Get the leg up.

muscle the dinghy up the beach past the high-water mark, keel grinding on shingle, then tie the painter off to a boulder above the strand line.

—

walk back down the beach to the dock, crowbar in hand, and start prying at the suspect planks on the north side to expose the rot extent before the tide rises further.

Stringers are gone past the third piling. We sister the sound cores now, or the crane takes the lot when the boat comes.

grab the salvaged greenheart planks and three 150mm stainless through-bolts with nyloc nuts from the workshop, move to the north end of the dock, start sistering the first sound core to the piling while the tide's still workable

Running them by hand. Thirty-five newton metres on the torque wrench, same as the ring bolts.

drill clearance holes through the greenheart sister plank and into the sound piling core, thread each 150mm stainless bolt by hand to check for cross-threading, then torque all three to 35Nm with the wrench