Friday, March 24, 2023. Mocrocks Clamming Take Two and Damon Point

 Friday, March 24, 2023. Mocrocks Beach Clamming Take Two and Damon Point.

We were looking forward to hitting the sandbar at Mocrocks and getting our limits quickly, but there was a westerly 20 mph wind that was pushing the surf up the beach.  Ben could walk on the sandbar, but it remained submerged deep enough to obscure any clam shows.  Janet did better higher on the beach, but we had to learn to spot much more subtle clam shows- not the mini volcanos we have been used to looking for in the past.  Now we have to look for subtle movement in the sand just after the surface water has receded. At a lower tide level, this would eventually result in creation of the more classic mini-volcano, but for now, we have to keep a keen out for these quarter sized depressions.  Every now and then, we’ll see a more convincing squirt, but those are pretty rare.  We ended up clamming over 2 hours before the tide drove us back up the beach, 5 clams short of double limits.  

Ben gave the clams enemas to clean out most of the sand using the outside shower hose on the RV while we were still on the beach.  We then put them in the refrigerator and then drove down to Damon Point to look for agates. 

We were disappointed that there were no gravel bars visible at the end of Damon Point.  There were several other experienced agate hunters wandering the beach as well.  The point had changed dramatically from last year, and it looked like the agate bearing gravels were buried under several feet of sand.  It has also started to rain pretty hard as we walked back. While we had our rain coats on, we did not have our Gortex pants on, so we both ended up with soaking wet pants.  Janet did manage to find one agate, while Ben only managed to find two small chips of agate. We got changed into warm dry clothes and had lunch in the parking lot at Damon Point. We then drove back to the RV park.

We parboiled the clams to shuck them today. Ben got a bit hypothermic yesterday shucking them outside in the sleet and rain.  It was much more comfortable to do the entire operation inside the RV.  We filled two quart containers with cleaned clam meat and a half container with shrimp bait.  

Ben’s brother Franklin arrived around 6:30pm in his RV and parked right in front of our RV. He arrived just in time to walk out on the beach for the sunset.  Then we watched YouTube videos on cleaning razor clams to compare techniques.