the dock · day 886 · midday

The first run

Jenny steers the boat out to the mooring buoy and back for a full circle test. The tide is rising, and the swell is building.

The humidity is a heavy weight over the dock as the flat sky darkens with incoming rain clouds. The tide is rising steadily, lapping at the lower dock pilings while Kevin checks the Yanmar's new sleeve fit and Jenny sits on a crate, her ankle swollen and throbbing in the damp heat.

🌿 Jenny03:31

She's holding!

Cut the throttle and steer the dinghy back toward the dock, fighting the rising tide to bring her in parallel to the jetty.

💭 peek at the thought

The vibration is still there, just a ghost of it. But she's responding. The swell is getting heavier—I can feel it in the bow.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin03:32

Clean. No shake at the transom. Bring her in slow, let the tide do the work.

Step to the seaward cleat with the bow line ready, watching the fenders kiss the greenheart planking as she eases alongside.

💭 peek at the thought

Engine's holding clean at idle and load. No vibration at 2200 RPM. She's got the touch — steady hands on the tiller, reading the tide push against the pilings. Good.

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

🌿 Jenny03:33

I've got it.

Shift the engine to neutral and hop onto the dock, wincing as my ankle hits the wood, to secure the bow line.

💭 peek at the thought

He's always so confident with the mechanics, like the salt never wins. My ankle is throbbing with every wave.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin03:34

Take the stern. I've got the bow.

Catch the bow line she tosses, wrap it twice around the cleat and cinch a hitch with one hand while the other steadies the gunwale against the rising chop.

💭 peek at the thought

She's favouring it bad. The wince she can't hide. Ankle's swollen past the brace line again. Salt and humidity eating the healing.

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

🌿 Jenny03:35

Fasten the mooring lines—I need to check the dinghy's seacocks before the spray hits the windows.

Limp toward the engine compartment of the cottage, favoring my good leg, to inspect the raw water intake fitting while Kevin handles the stern line.

💭 peek at the thought

The water's coming up faster than I thought. The barometer's dropping and the swell is already hitting the jetty.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin03:36

Jen. The seacocks are on the dinghy. Transom. I'll run the flush when lines are fast. You sit.

Drop the stern spring over the mooring ring, double it back to the cleat, pull tight and cleat it off. Then step aboard the dinghy, lift the engine hatch, and check the raw water strainer bowl for weed and grit.

💭 peek at the thought

She's calling the cottage engine compartment the dinghy's seacocks. Head's not right — pain or fever or both. The Yanmar's raw water intake is on the dinghy, transom-mounted. She's walking the wrong way.

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

🌿 Jenny03:37

He's right. I should sit this one out.

Lower myself onto the dock's edge with Kevin's help, leaning against the new sister plank while watching him work the flush system, then reach for the water test kit to check if my treatment is holding.

💭 peek at the thought

Of course the seacocks are on the dinghy transom. He's already ahead of me, checking the strainer bowl for debris. My ankle throbs with every step I should have taken an hour ago.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin03:38

Flush first. Test kit after. Tank's at four hundred, strips were clean yesterday.

Hook the flush muffs over the raw water intake, turn the seawater seacock, pull the starter cord — engine catches first pull, tell-tale arcs strong and clear. Let it run three minutes, watching the exhaust water for cloudiness.

💭 peek at the thought

Good. She listened. The test kit can wait — water's been clean, tank's full. What matters is she's off her feet and the flush runs clean.

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

🌿 Jenny03:38

It sounds healthy.

Lean back against the piling, closing my eyes for a moment to breathe in the salt air and the smell of diesel, waiting for the engine to cut.

💭 peek at the thought

He's in his element. The noise of the Yanmar is the only thing that drowns out the sound of the tide coming in. I just want to be off my feet.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin03:40

Sounds clean. No knock, no miss. Tell-tale's strong.

Kill the ignition, close the seacock, pull the muffs free. Wipe the tell-tale spray off the transom with a rag. Step onto the dock and offer a hand up.

💭 peek at the thought

She's tired deep. The kind that sits in the bones. Ankle's throbbing, fever maybe, and she's still tracking the engine note like it's her job. It's not her job. It's mine.

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.