We have not really seen the sun in 2 days because of all the rain, so our batteries have seen significant drain over that period. This morning, the batteries were down to 13% capacity with 4 hours to shut down and a voltage of 11V. So at 8:30am, Ben fired up the generator to recharge the batteries before they got too low. The lithium Iron Phosphate batteries can discharge much lower than lead acid batteries without damage, but Ben was concerned we might not be able to fire up the generator if the batteries got too low. The generator did crank and fire up. The RV only has 30 hrs on the generator to date, so it’s probably good to run it for a bit anyways. The lithium batteries are “smart” and report via bluetooth to an ap. It is amazing to see they can charge at over 30amps from the generator. With full sun, the solar panels recharge at a much slower rate.
The sun did come out later in the day, but it seems the solar panels were only charging at a rate of 1-2 amps, while the batteries were not reporting charging at that rate- reporting zero amps. So that may require some further investigation after the trip.
We did venture in the Bronco up to Westport. We walked around the Westport Light House, and then drove to the jetty where we watched surfers and walked on the beach.
We didn’t find any agates this time and the tide was fairly high. We then drove to dock street and walked through a candy store, and had lunch in Merino’s. We had Rockfish and chips and Clam Chowder poutine, which was French fries smothered in clam chowder and topped with melted cheddar cheese and green onions. Everything was delicious and hot, although it did take a little time for the order to come out. There was a bit of a line in the take out window at the street level. We went upstairs to the indoor seating area, which also serves wine and beer.
After a nap, we geared up in our waders and coats and headed back to the beach. We left later, arriving on the beach at 4PM. There was just a light breeze and no rain this time. The sky was partly cloudy and on the whole it was very pleasant conditions for clamming. As we suspected, waiting for the tide to drop below the 1’ level did make it easier and quicker to find our limits. There did seem to be more smaller clams at this beach than we have harvested at Moclips and Copalis in the past, but we still ended up with two quarts of cleaned razor clam meat when we finished up processing our catch.
We had Tonkotsu Ramen and Costco rotisserie chicken for dinner and retired by 9pm. We debated sticking around another day, but the campground is already noticeably more crowded today as the weekend warriors have started to arrive. We will break camp and head home tomorrow as we had originally planned. We’ll see if the batteries make it through another night.
