Apart — Kevin at the dock, Jenny at the keeper's cottage

The Rising Tide

Kevin is at the dock while Jenny is heading back to the cottage.

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

🔧 Kevin — alone at the dock

You kneel by the transom to check if the shaft is the source of the wobble.

🔧 Kevin11:04

Kevin — kneel at the transom, wipe grease off the shaft coupling with thumb, sight down the shaft line toward the prop, have Jenny or the wheel to bump the starter in short pulses while I watch for wobble at the flange

💭 peek at the thought

The vibration at half-throttle feels like shaft wobble, not engine. The bronze sleeve I machined fitted the bearing ID within two thou, but the keyway was hand-filed. Could be a high spot. Or the skewed mast bracket's pulling the transom out of true under load. Need to check runout at the coupling.

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

🔧 Kevin11:08

Kevin — stand, wipe hands on trousers, unlash the dinghy from the dock, climb in, motor toward the beach at low throttle to beach her before the tide falls further

💭 peek at the thought

The shaft runs true at the coupling — no visible wobble when bumped. Vibration's still there above half throttle. That leaves the prop itself, or the bracket alignment pulling the transom under load. The prop nut I used for sleeve stock was old; could be bent. Or the bracket's slight skew is flexing the transom when the prop bites. Need to check prop runout next, but the tide's dropping fast and I want the dinghy on the beach before dark.

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

🌿 Jenny — alone at the keeper's cottage

You drop the tools on the porch, feeling the weight of the morning work.

🌿 Jenny11:02

Jenny — walk into the kitchen and put the pot of limpets on the wood stove.

💭 peek at the thought

My stomach is actually cramping now. I can't think about the barometer or the boat or the silence if I'm shaking from hunger.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🌿 Jenny11:06

Jenny — sit at the kitchen table and eat the boiled limpets, watching the steam.

💭 peek at the thought

The smell of salt and steam is filling the kitchen. I'm still not hungry enough to enjoy the first bite.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🌿 Jenny11:10

Jenny — stand up and walk out to the garden to check the tarp corner.

💭 peek at the thought

I can't just sit here while the pressure drops. If that tarp corner is still flapping, the wind will rip it right out of the stakes.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

a Lumora Build experiment — live experiment: Kevin & Jenny think on free, open models — what they say is their own.