20250413 Sunday, April 13, 2025 Surprise Charge, Easy Limits, More Propane

20250413 Sunday, April 13, 2025 Surprise Charge, Easy Limits, More Propane

We hit the beach at 6:15 and it was nice to have daylight and not need the headlamps.  We went to the same area, and easily got our two limits of 15 clams each.  We were headed back to the campsite at 7 a.m., a half hour before the bottom of the 0’ 7:29 a.m. low tide.  It's nice that the clams on this beach seem to be significantly larger than at Cape Disappointment.

We used the induction cooktop to process the clams, but got a beeping warning from the inverter panel just as we were pulling the shells off the last two clams.  It was telling us our battery voltage was getting low.  The panel showed 12.2V.  The Lithium battery BMS’s reported we were down to about 21% charge.  The sun was up and the solar panel controller was showing 1-2A, which would not be enough to charge up the batteries in this state, so we waited until after 9 a.m. and then tried to run the generator, only to discover that we had used up our auxiliary LP bottle again.  Ben switched back to the main LP tank and we ran the generator for an hour which charged up the batteries from 21% to 38%.  Interestingly, the charge current was 35-40A reported by both Lithium BMS’s, and inverter panel, but after about 30 minutes, the batteries were up to 56% but the charging current had dropped to 5A.  So it appears that either the inverter charging circuit, or the lithium battery BMS was slowing down the charging current as the batteries filled up.

We took the empty LP bottle with us and drove back to Aberdeen to have it refilled.  On the way, we stopped at the International Mermaid Museum and Westport Winery.  They are having a Mermaid festival this weekend, and it seems to draw a lot of people in.  The parking lot filled up quickly while we were there.  

There is a mermaid in a 900-gallon tank parked next to the building like a sideshow from the Barnum and Bailey Circus who will pose for pictures.  She also delivers small trinket gifts to little children via a shell conveyor belt from her tank.  

The museum itself was a bit of a surprise.  We had braced ourselves for something really hokey, but it was actually very well done and informative.  There were many exhibits explaining both Mermaid mythology and actual corresponding Marine Biology and Oceanographic facts with mythology from all over the world.  We had encountered a trivia question on Kelpies and Selkies during a recent cruise.  These were both explained in the museum, along with Mermaid mythology and lore from Chile, Mexico, China, Japan, the Philippines, Russia, and the UK.  

We ran into the problem with major LP providers being closed on Sundays in Aberdeen like we had encountered in Long Beach, but were able to get our tank refilled at the Tractor Supply Store in Aberdeen.  We also stopped at the Dollar Tree and bought more containers and zip-lock bags for tomorrow’s razor clam catch since we have basically run out of bags and containers.  The RV freezer is nearly completely filled, aside from ice cube trays making ice for tomorrow’s processing.  We also had lunch at the Dairy Queen again, although we opted for cheese burgers instead of chicken tenders today. 

We encountered the State Parks Ranger making his rounds.  We had registered for 4 nights (Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday) with our Senior Off-Season Pass.  The pass is good until April 30, but there is fine print on the back that specifies that in April, it is restricted to camping on Sunday through Thursday.  So we owed him $50 for Friday and Saturday.  Tonight and tomorrow night will be free though.  We’ll just have to dig up a few more clams to cover that.  

After naps, we headed into Westport and walked the Jetty to Lighthouse trail, which is nicely paved.  A pair of dredging ships were working around the south Jetty.  Then we had dinner at Merino’s with an order of Rockfish fish and chips and Clam chowder.  Both were really good.  We’ll have to try to steal the clam chowder recipe.

We stopped at the Westport marina observation tower and realized for the first time that it is actually primarily a Tsunami refuge. The wind was really strong at the top.

Tomorrow’s low tide is -0.2’ at 8 a.m., so we should be able to “sleep in” a bit before hitting the beach.