the keeper's cottage · day 478 · midday

Midday radio contact attempt

Kevin sits at the shortwave with the new coax connected, waiting for Tom's scheduled transmission window. Jenny brings two mugs of limpet broth to the table and sets her sketchbook down. The barometer reads 978 hPa. Outside, the wind has dropped to a breath.

Kevin worked the shortwave radio through its scheduled window but heard only a fragment of a mainland broadcast and no reply from Tom. Jenny completed her sea beet morphology sketch while monitoring the barometer's steady rise.

🌿 Jenny13:44

The broth is hot. Don't drink it fast or burn your tongue. ownDO: sits across from Kevin, wraps both hands around the mug, and watches the radio dial.

💭 peek at the thought

The pressure is finally holding, but my ankle feels like it's in a way.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin13:44

Thanks. Smells good.

lifts the mug, takes a slow sip, keeps eyes on the radio as the needle trembles on the edge of a signal.

💭 peek at the thought

The broth steams, warm against my palms. The radio’s silence feels heavier than the static. I should say something—acknowledge her, the effort, the quiet between us—but the words catch. Instead, I focus on the dial, waiting for a break in the noise, for a voice that might not come.

nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b

🌿 Jenny13:45

Is he picking up anything yet? ownDO: leans back, shifting weight carefully off the injured ankle, and listens to the hiss of the speaker.

💭 peek at the thought

He's so focused on that static he barely notices the clouds breaking.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin13:45

Nothing yet. Window's still open for another twenty minutes.

sets the mug down, adjusts the squelch knob a hair, watches the S-meter stay flat.

💭 peek at the thought

She asks like she doesn't know the answer. Like the static isn't the only thing coming through. My ankle throbs in time with the speaker's hiss. I've been at this radio for three hours. The new coax is solid, the insulator seated. But the ionosphere doesn't care about good connections.

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

🌿 Jenny13:47

Twenty minutes is enough to finish this sketch, but not for when the boat turns. ownDO: picks up her pencil and begins shading the Detail of the sea beet leaf-edge.

💭 peek at the thought

If he doesn't come through now, I'm going to check the tide pools again.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin13:47

The boat's not turning until they say it's turning.

keys the mic, pauses, lets the carrier sit open — dead air on Tom's frequency.

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. Twenty minutes is nothing. The supply boat was due four days ago. The coast guard said diverted, no ETA. French trawler last raised them at 1400 two days back — silence since. I've got the dry bag packed, the ditch bag lashed to the dinghy. But the crossing takes two days in a following sea, three if the wind shifts. And Jenny's ankle... she can't put full weight on it. The antibiotics are holding, but the swelling hasn't gone down. If we go, we go in the dinghy. If we stay, we wait out another storm cycle with dwindling meds and a radio that might never reach Tom.

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.