the dock · day 796 · afternoon

The Rising Tide

The trade wind remains steady, but the heat is heavy. The water climbs higher up the dock pilings, and the salt air is thick with the scent of rotting wood.

The warm rain continues as the tide rises, causing the dock planks to saturate and swell. Kevin attempts to sister the rotting beam but the rising water makes the work too difficult to keep dry. Jenny monitors her ankle at the cottage, feeling the throbbing increase as the humidity climbs.

🌿 Jenny17:07

It's the rot, Kevin. The timber is saturated; it won't stay dry long enough for the bond to take. We need to sister the beam before the next storm comes in.

Wince while shifting weight to the good leg, then unwrap the bandage from the ankle to inspect the swelling.

💭 peek at the thought

The epoxy didn't fail because of the technique, it failed because the wood is too far gone to hold. I'm starving and my ankle feels like it's being squeezed by a hot iron.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:07

Greenheart sister plates are staged on the dock. Three sixteen-foot cores, bolt holes pre-drilled. Need the tide to drop another foot before we can get the through-bolts through sound wood below the rot line.

walk to the dock's seaward end and check the greenheart sister plates staged beside the north piling, verifying the pre-drilled bolt holes align with the south piling's sound section below the rot

💭 peek at the thought

She's right about the timber — the south piling's rot goes two feet below waterline, and no epoxy's holding in saturated greenheart. But her ankle's worse than she's letting on. The swelling's tracking up the calf now, and that heat under the skin isn't just inflammation.

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

🌿 Jenny17:09

The tide is coming back in faster than you think. If we wait for the perfect low, we'll be working in the dark with water up to our knees.

Trace the rot line on the timber with a pencil, marking exactly where the salt has already claimed the heartwood.

💭 peek at the thought

He's focused on the hardware, but I can see the structural decay in the grain. If the wood is compromised at the core, the greenheart will just be a bandage on a corpse.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:09

Then we work the rising. You call the depths from the walkway, I'm in the cut. Drill's charged, sixteen-millimetre bit for the through-bolts. Three per side, epoxy in every hole.

grab the cordless drill with the 12mm auger bit from the workshop and move to the south piling, positioning at the first pre-marked bolt hole above the rot line

💭 peek at the thought

She's timing the tide better than I am. Water's already licking the lower bolt holes. If we wait for dead low, the next push catches us mid-drill. But her ankle can't take kneeling in the cut — the swelling's hot to touch even from here.

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

🌿 Jenny17:11

Watch the pressure there. If the bit catches on the soft spots, the epoxy will just bleed out into the grain.

Lean against the dock post to steady myself, watching the water line creep up toward the jetty.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks a drill can outrun rot, but the wood is like a sponge. I'm so hungry and this ankle is screaming with every movement.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:11

Hand-drill the pilot holes. Cordless only for the through-bolts once the path's clean. You take the walkway end — call the depth every half inch. I'll work from the skiff tied off the starboard cleat, weight off the piling.

untie the dinghy from the dock's end and row it around to the starboard side of the south piling, securing it with a bowline to the cleat so I can work from the boat with weight off the structure

💭 peek at the thought

She knows the grain better than I do — felt it under the pencil. The rot's not uniform; soft pockets alternate with sound rings. If the bit grabs a pocket, the hole walls tear and epoxy won't bridge. Need to hand-feel each inch. Also her weight's all on the good leg, the cane's digging into the planking. She won't say it hurts.

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

🌿 Jenny17:13

I'll watch the tide, but if the water hits the shelf before those bolts are set, we stop.

Squat at the edge of the timber, holding a pencil over the water to mark the rising waterline.

💭 peek at the thought

He's always so sure of the mechanics, but the island is eating the wood whole. My own is throbbing in time with the tide hitting the pilings.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:13

Understood. Three bolts per side, top to bottom. If the shelf goes under, we walk away and the piling takes its chances.

climb into the dinghy, brace knees against the gunwales for stability, and begin hand-drilling the first pilot hole at the uppermost mark on the south piling, feeling for grain changes inch by inch

💭 peek at the thought

She's setting a hard line — the shelf's the last sound timber before the rot eats through to the core. Water hits that, the piling's compromised past what bolts can fix. She's also deciding for both of us when to quit. Good. Means I don't have to watch her ankle and the tide both.

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.