20250428 Monday, April 28, 2025. Morning Clamming and Emergency Med Hunt

20250428 Monday, April 28, 2025. Morning Clamming and Emergency Medication Hunt

We got up at 6 a.m. but could hear other campers heading out to dig for clams and the cawing of crows in the campground as we got dressed. 

There was heavy overcast overhead, but plenty of daylight and light wind when we got to the beach at 6:40 a.m. With a -2.0’ tide, there was a lot of beach exposed. The sand at the end of the beach approach had gotten very loose, so a lot of people were parking on the shoulders of the approach. An abandoned RV has been on that shoulder for weeks, but since the last time we were here, someone had set it ablaze, so now it’s a burned-out hulk on the shoulder. Some of the nearby trees were also burned. 

Although the tide had gone way out, there was a surprising lack of classic clam shows on the particular stretch of beach we were on. At one point, we could see moisture being pumped by clams well below the surface, but they weren’t leaving any shows. Eventually, we did manage to find enough shows or partial shows to get our limits, but it was certainly easier to find them the last time we were here when they were making classic shows. We were on a slightly different stretch of the beach, so perhaps tomorrow we’ll go to the same spot we were in 2 weeks earlier. 

We got the clams cleaned and put up. Ben had brought our Waterpik to use to give the clams enemas. This was a lot easier and faster than using a hand syringe, but even after enemas, some clams just seem to manage to retain some sand. 

When we got up in the morning, the batteries still had 75% charge, so we decided to try to do the clam cleaning with the induction cooktop because it brings water up to temperature much faster than the LP burner. This was working well until Ben put on the Keurig to make a cup of coffee. All of a sudden, everything shut off, including the lights. The generator panel was dark, but Ben tried pushing the start button anyways, but nothing happened. 

Just as Ben was about to pull open the battery compartment lid to jumpstart the system, assuming the BMS had shut down the Lithium batteries from the overload of running both the induction cooktop and coffee maker, the generator started up, and after stabilizing, the lights came back on and normal power was restored. The BMS may have just temporarily shut the batteries down. When we checked the BMS monitoring app, it reported the charge state at 50% and charging at over 30A. 

We’ll just have to remember not to run the coffee maker or toaster when using the induction cooktop. 

In addition to forgetting our fishing licenses, Ben realized he had forgotten to grab his medications. So we did have to run into Westport after getting our clams cleaned and put up to see about getting emergency meds sent to a local pharmacy. We used the WiFi at the public library to message Ben’s doctor and also had the pharmacist at Twin Harbor Drugs call Ben’s doctor. 

We had lunch back at the campground and then went for a walk along the Westport Lighthouse trail. We headed back to the pharmacy. The doctor’s office finally sent prescriptions at 3 p.m. Instead of just getting a handful of pills, Ben ended up with 30-day supplies of his blood pressure and cholesterol-lowering meds. The copay for these emergency meds was higher than for the usual mail-order refills, but it certainly was less than the cost of driving all the way back home. 

We also came to the realization that although our Senior Off-Season pass is only good Sundays - Thursdays, Thursday is May 1st and the pass expires after April 30th, so we had to re-register our campsite so we leave a day earlier on Thursday instead of Friday.