the dock · day 247 · dawn

The Half-Throttle Load Test

Kevin runs the Yanmar engine at half throttle while the dinghy vibrates against the pilings. Jenny stands by the mooring ring with a wrench, checking for movement in the bolts under load.

At dawn on day 247, the sky is flat and clouds are thickening. The tide is low, exposing the rock flats around the dock. Kevin and Jenny have finished mapping the rot in the dock's mooring timber, finding it has hollowed out for three feet toward the shore-end.

🔧 Kevin04:09

Hold the wrench on the forward bolt. If it walks, you'll feel it before I see it.

Lean over the transom, hand on the coupling flange, eyes on the shaft where it enters the stuffing box, feeling for lateral play while the engine runs at half throttle.

💭 peek at the thought

The vibration's different at half throttle — lower frequency, travels through the transom into my boots. Not the cutless bearing. That's higher, sharper. This feels like the mast bracket flexing under load, or the prop shaft alignment still off a hair despite the sleeve. Need to watch the coupling while she loads the ring.

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

🌿 Jenny04:11

It's holding for now, but the wood around the threads is turning to wet paper.

Jenny leans her body weight against the wrench, listening for the distinct click of metal against the shifting timber.

💭 peek at the thought

The vibration is travelling through the wood; if that bolt shears now, the whole ring goes into the surf.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin04:11

Back it off. Don't strip what's left.

Kill the Yanmar, step onto the dock, crouch at the mooring ring, probe the mortise with the nail puller to see how deep the rot goes.

💭 peek at the thought

Wet paper wood means the mortise is gone. Bolts bite into nothing. Cedar shims split, oak wedges split. The ring's only held by the through-bolts now, and they're pulling the timber apart. Seven days until the supply boat. If a swell hits wrong, the ring rips free and takes the bow cleat with it.

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

🌿 Jenny04:13

It's soft, Kevin. The whole timber is mush inside.

Jenny relaxes her grip as the engine dies, watching the nail puller sink into the grey, pulpy wood.

💭 peek at the thought

The engine is quiet, but the silence is louder with the wood failing.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin04:13

How far back does it run?

Drive the nail puller in at intervals along the timber, working toward the cottage, mapping the rot.

💭 peek at the thought

The whole timber. Not just the mortise. The dock's main longitudinal. If that's gone, the seaward bolts are holding onto sponge. Seven days. Maybe the boat comes, maybe it doesn't. If a front pushes swell in before then, the dinghy's the least of it — the dock goes, and the cottage's next in line for the winter storms.

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

🌿 Jenny04:15

It's at least three feet. The salt has hollowed the core out.

Jenny pulls the puller out, watching a chunk of sodden, black wood come away with it.

💭 peek at the thought

If the whole beam is gone, I can't even secure the boat for tomorrow.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin04:15

Check the abutment. Drive the puller into the shore end.

Walk the dock toward the cottage, testing each plank and the shoreward timber with the nail puller, looking for where the rot stops.

💭 peek at the thought

Three feet of main longitudinal. That's the dock's backbone. The seaward bolts are anchored in rot. The shoreward end sits on the abutment — if that's sound, we can sister a new timber alongside, bolt through both, hang the ring off the sister. But we need sound wood for the through-bolts. And we need it done in seven days.

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

🌿 Jenny04:17

The shore end is still solid, but the connection is a death trap.

Jenny presses the puller into the wood where the dock meets the land, feeling for resistance.

💭 peek at the thought

If the abutment is soft, we have to replace the whole structural section.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin04:17

Get the heavy wrench and the 12mm drill bit. I'll fetch the salvaged timber from the shed.

Walk up to the garden shed, haul out the three salvaged dock cores, pick the straightest and longest, carry it back to the dock.

💭 peek at the thought

Shore end solid. That's the anchor. Three feet of rot from the seaward end back. We sister a new timber — one of the salvaged sound cores from the last repair — bolt it through to the abutment, past the rot, into solid wood. Four 12mm through-bolts: two in the sound shore section, two through the new sister into the abutment. The mooring ring bolts through the sister. Old timber stays as sacrificial formwork. Seven days is tight but doable if we start now.

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

🌿 Jenny04:19

Hurry up. We need to measure the length of the good wood.

Jenny wipes the salt from her hands on her trousers, watching the clouds thicken over the island.

💭 peek at the thought

If I can't get this ring anchored before the boat comes, the dinghy is lost to the swell.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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