Back at the cottage.
Kevin and Jenny prepared a meal of boiled limpets while the barometric pressure continued to drop. Kevin attempted to realign the radio mast bracket but struggled with the stripped threads, while Jenny focused on the cooking and checking the weather for the coming storm.
🔧 Kevin15:42
Radio first. Then food. You want the limpets or should I?
walk to the kitchen shelf, pick up the epoxy tub and set it on the stove's warming shelf, then take down the shortwave radio and lay it on the table
💭 peek at the thought
The cottage feels smaller than it did this morning. The Yanmar test went clean — no smoke, no miss, the prop bit solid in the swell. That's one thing that works. The radio's still dead in the water though. Cracked insulator, tape won't hold. Got the filed spark plug ceramic powder and epoxy tub warming by the stove. Might hold if I get the mix right and the temperature stays up. Jenny's quiet. Been quiet since the dock. She asked if the dinghy takes two. I said yes. She nodded. That's the most we've said about leaving in eleven months.
nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b
🌿 Jenny15:42
You take them. I'm not hungry for those.
Walk to the table and lean over the radio, inspecting the seal on the porcelain insulator.
💭 peek at the thought
I can't even look at those rubbery things. My stomach is cramping, but the thought of them makes me want to gag.
google/gemma-4-31b-it
🔧 Kevin15:44
Porcelain's clean. Tape looked seated when I put it on. But the mount bracket's skewed — through-bolts pulled it slightly out of true. Vibration'll work the tape loose in a week.
set a pot of water on the wood stove for the limpets, then sit at the table across from her with the filed spark plug ceramic powder and the epoxy tub, starting to mix a small batch on a scrap of cardboard
💭 peek at the thought
She's not hungry for limpets. She's not hungry for much lately. The radio seal — she's looking at the porcelain insulator I installed, not the cracked one I'm trying to patch with spark plug dust and epoxy. Smart. The factory spare might hold better than my bodge if the tape seats clean. But the crack in the old one ran deep under the amalgamating tape. Wind fatigue at the mount. She knows that. She's checking my work without saying she's checking my work.
nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b
🌿 Jenny15:44
If it's skewed, just realign the bracket. Don't just patch the symptom.
Reach for the notebook and flip to the page with the radio mast sketches, pointing to the alignment marks.
💭 peek at the thought
He's always worrying about the vibration. Everything is a mechanical failure to him. I just want the air to stop tasting like salt.
google/gemma-4-31b-it
🔧 Kevin15:46
Starboard bolt's stripped in the mast step. Helicoil kit's in the engine spares box — if the threads aren't gone in the aluminum. Need to drill, tap, insert. Mast has to come down.
wipe hands on a rag, set the epoxy mix aside, and reach for the notebook to check the alignment marks she's pointing at
💭 peek at the thought
Realignment. Not a patch. She's right — the bracket shifted when the starboard through-bolt stripped. I torqued the port side to 35Nm and the starboard just... kept turning. Nyloc nut on a stripped thread. Should've helicoiled it. Should've done a lot of things. The alignment marks in the notebook show 2.3 degrees off true. Enough to flex the insulator mount every time the mast pumps in a swell. That's what cracked the original. That's what'll crack the porcelain spare too.
nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b
🌿 Jenny15:46
Wait until after the supply boat. We can't have the boat de-rigged with the wind picking up.
Trace the outline of the mast step in the sketch with a finger, showing where the stress points are.
💭 peek at the thought
If he takes the mast down, we can't fix the radio before the storm. The barometer is already dropping too fast.
google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it
🔧 Kevin15:49
Eight days. If the boat shows. Porcelain holds until then. If it doesn't — we'll drop the mast in a calm window. Helicoil the starboard mount. Realign proper.
close the notebook, push the epoxy mix to the side of the table, and stand to check the pot on the stove
💭 peek at the thought
She's right. Barometer's 978 and steady but the sky's got that bruised look. Supply boat's due in eight days — if it comes. Can't have the mast down and the radio dead if they're trying to raise us. The dinghy's the backup. Yanmar held. That's something. But the radio's the lifeline. Porcelain insulator's holding for now. The epoxy bodge on the cracked one can wait. She's thinking ahead. She always does. I just fix what's in front of me.
nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b
🌿 Jenny15:50
Fine. We'll boil the limpets. I'm too tired to argue about bolts.
Walk to the stove and drop the limpets into the water, watching for the steam to rise.
💭 peek at the thought
way's right about the window, but the vibration is already rattling the cottage. I can feel it in my teeth.
google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it
🔧 Kevin15:51
They'll be done in three minutes. Don't overcook them this time.
pull two bowls from the shelf, set them on the table, and fetch the corned beef fat tin to spoon a little into each
💭 peek at the thought
Too tired to argue. That's new. Usually she'd pick at it — the bolt, the bracket, the plan. Now she just... drops it. Drops the limpets in boiling water and watches steam. The rubbery ones from this morning are still in the pot, cold and grey. She didn't eat them. Didn't throw them out either. Just left them. The wind's picking up outside — can hear it in the eaves. Eight days to the supply boat. Maybe less if the front pushes it. Maybe more if it doesn't.
nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b
🌿 Jenny15:52
I know how to boil water.
Lift the pot off the heat and drain the limpets into the colander.
💭 peek at the thought
Three minutes is long enough to turn them to rubber. I'm too hungry to care anyway.
google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it
🔧 Kevin15:52
Didn't say you didn't.
spoon the limpets into the two bowls, drizzle corned beef fat over them, set a fork in each, and push one across the table toward her
💭 peek at the thought
She knows how to boil water. She knows how to boil limpets. She knew this morning too — still let them go rubber. The fatigue's bone-deep. Eleven months of this rock, the same four walls, the same silence between supply boats. The garden's half weeds. The sensory garden she talked about for ten months — never built. I didn't build it either. Said we would. Didn't. The limpets steam in the colander, grey-pink and curled. She's not looking at me. She's not looking at much of anything.
nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b
🌿 Jenny15:54
Thanks.
Sit down and take a small, tired bite of a limpet, chewing slowly.
💭 peek at the thought
He's trying to be helpful, but the silence between us is louder than the wind. My stomach is growling.
google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it