20250414 Running into Data Limits along with Razor Clam Limits

20250414 Running into Data Limits along with Razor Clam Limits

We got to the beach by 7 a.m. with plenty of daylight, blue skies, and calm winds.  It was pretty much ideal clamming weather, although a coat and waders are still required because it was in the mid-40s.  We got out our limits easily and have found in general that the clams here at Twin Harbors have been larger than those at Cape Disappointment.  With a lower tide, it was also easier to spot shows higher up on the beach, so there was no need to be working the actual tide line where the waves wash up frequently and erase new clam shows. We were headed back to the RV by 7:30 a.m., a half hour before the bottom of the low tide.  

We have gotten into a routine for cleaning the clams which works pretty efficiently.  Ben gives the clams enemas and puts them into a tray while Janet heats the water for shucking the clams.  The clams go into an ice bath immediately after being shucked out of their shells.  From there, Janet cuts the siphons open and separates the stomach and foot from the rest of the body.  Ben then cleans the foot by cutting off the stomach and turning it inside out to remove the intestinal tract.  The cleaned feet and bodies get reunited in quart zip-lock bags for freezing.  A limit of 15 clams fits pretty nicely in a quart-sized zip-lock, although these bags are notably larger than those we prepared at Cape Disappointment due to the larger size of the clams.

Once the clams are put up, we clean and tidy up the RV.  We start up the generator at 9 a.m. to bulk charge the batteries and run it for about 2 hrs or until we get to 60-70% charge state.  The charge rate drops significantly at that point to just 2-3 amps.  This is the same rate that the solar panels can easily generate with a sunny day, so we shut down the generator and let the solar take care of the balance of the absorption charge.  If we don’t get up to 80% after the sun has set, we may run the generator during dinner preparation to make sure we have adequate reserves in the batteries.  

While the generator was running, we ran the Bronco back down to the beach to dump the clam shells and go for a walk.  

After our walk, we had lunch, preparing some of the Jalapeño Cheese sausages we got at the Gather and Feast Harvest Host, along with some green beans and bread.  The sausages were quite tasty.  There was a vendor selling sausages at the Mermaid Festival yesterday for more than $10 each, so we did pretty well on the Harvest Host sausages.  We had to take the sausages out of the freezer to make room for more razor clams.

With the sun out, we hung our waders and work towels to dry.  

In the afternoon, we drove into Westport and discovered their public library has free Wi-Fi.  Yesterday we used the Wi-Fi at Merino’s restaurant.  During this trip, Janet got notification that she had used up her 15GB data allowance with Mint Mobile, so we ended up having to upgrade her to an unlimited plan, but then found that if you use a mobile hotspot, it is limited to only 10GB of data.  Well, Janet uses her iPhone as a personal hotspot for her iPad a lot.  Then Ben got notification from Xfinity Mobile that his data usage had exceeded 30GB, and although it is an “Unlimited Plan”, beyond 30GB/month, the data is throttled to 1MBPS, which is pretty slow.  It’s okay for email, but not for streaming any video content. We’re not entirely sure why our data usage was so high in March, but being on the road does make us much more reliant on cellular data, and when traveling, we do take more photos which are synced to iCloud.  Our Egypt trip generated a lot of photos, but we would have thought those would have synced over our Wi-Fi at home, but Ben’s 30GB usage was well over his normal usage.

Tomorrow will be the last day of clamming and camping for us, even though the razor clam opening extends to this Friday.  Janet has a hearing appointment on Wednesday and is running out of her medications.  When we started out on this trip, we didn’t know how long we’d be gone, but had anticipated having to be back before the tax filing deadline.  We’ve had an enjoyable and productive trip.  Chinese Visas in hand and lots of razor clams to last us the rest of the year.  Plus we’ve learned more about our RV’s LP and electrical systems.  Tomorrow’s low tide is at 8:33 a.m. and will be -0.3’.  We hope tomorrow morning will be as nice as today was.