the dock · day 487 · dawn

The Morning Tide Slack

The tide has receded, exposing the slick barnacles on the dock pilings. Jenny sits on the edge of the wood, wrapping her ankle in fresh gauze while Kevin prepares the come-along and the greenheart offcuts for the ring repair.

The sun rises over a calm, clear sky as the tide recedes from the dock-pilings. Kevin prepares the Yanmar engine for a load test, checking for the vibration he's been tracking, while Jenny gathers the boiled limpets and sea beet for breakfast. The air is dry and warm, the scent of salt and drying wood lingering.

🔧 Kevin22:07

Ring first. Then we check your ankle proper.

set up come-along on the dock mooring ring, tension the line to take weight off the mortise, drive the tapered greenheart shim into the gap with a mallet, check alignment, backfill with epoxy and greenheart offcuts

💭 peek at the thought

Tide's low enough. Ring's unloaded. Greenheart shim's cut and ready. Jenny's ankle looks worse in this light — yellow tracking up past the gauze. She won't say it hurts. She never does.

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

🌿 Jenny22:07

Just make it tight. I don't want the boat shifting again.

Tighten the wrap on my ankle, then pick up the pencil to sketch the sea beet morphology I found by the spring.

💭 peek at the thought

If that ring doesn't hold when the boat comes, I'm stuck here with a rotting leg and no way.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin22:09

Holding. Driving it now.

drive the greenheart shim home with heavy mallet strikes, check ring for movement, mix remaining epoxy and pack the mortise gaps with greenheart offcuts, wipe excess, release come-along tension slowly to test seat

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. Boat shifts, we lose the dinghy, maybe the dock. Greenheart's dense, oily, won't rot. Shim's tapered right — kerfed the back so it seats deep. Come-along's holding. One good drive should lock it.

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

🌿 Jenny22:10

It's holding. Let the tide set it.

Test the ring with a sharp tug, then stand up and wince as the weight shifts onto my ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

It looks solid for now, but the wood is so tired, like my bones.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin22:11

Tight. Tide'll do the rest. Sit down before you put more on it.

guide Jenny gently back to sit on the dock edge, kneel to inspect the gauze — it's damp and stained yellow at the seam, lift the wrap carefully to see the wound, clean with boiled limpets water from the pot, reapply fresh mint poultice from

💭 peek at the thought

Ring's seated. Tide'll swell the wood, lock it tighter. Jenny's on her feet — face tight, weight favoring the left. She's hiding how bad it is. If this infection climbs, we're out of antibiotics and far from help.

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

🌿 Jenny22:11

I'm fine. Just need to get those limpets boiled before they get cold.

Lean back against the way wall, watching the tide creep back toward the pilings.

💭 peek at the thought

My leg is throbbing in time with the waves. The salt hurts the skin.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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