Pelicans in the Bay of Ensenada de la Raza

January 21, 2023  

On January 21st the wind arrived, it actually came in overnight and we awoke to a windy, stormy anchorage.  We were well protected, such that only the strong gusts made it to us.  This meant that in between gusts the wind would drop right down, often to almost ten knots, but then with a vengeance the next gust would hit and the boat would shudder under its force.  Because of being protected from the wind by the hills and mountains, the large gusts were also funnelled down to us making the wind stronger at the water's surface than aloft.  At the top of our mast we clocked 34 knots, but it was stronger at deck level, and because we were not too far from land, there was very little fetch for the wind to build up the waves, but it was amazing what a 30-40 knot gust could whip up in seconds.  Blowing spray went flying past our boat, and we even saw a spray tornado form off of one of the points of land.  It remained windy for two days, and although it was noisy and we swung around a lot from side to side in the wind, our boat did not budge its anchor and we remained comfortable.   

Apart from having our wind meter to watch, we also had a constant display of pelicans. 

The bay, Ensenada de la Raza, seemed to be a hot spot for pelican activity, and even during the strongest winds, the pelicans kept feeding. 

They were everywhere and feeding right around our boat at times, it was quite spectacular to watch,

as sometimes a hundred or more pelicans would be hurtling themselves like torpedoes into the water all over the bay.  It was spectacular.  

Every evening, just before sunset, hundreds of Frigatebirds would also gather in the area and they would sore above the small island of Isla Gallo until after sunset. 

This small island, and all of its cacti, was incredibly covered in white guano, and we assume that the frigate birds probably roosted there for the night. 

We have four, small solar-powered lights on the deck of our boat that come on automatically as darkness falls.  In the ambient glow from La Paz, while anchored in the La Paz harbour, we had never noticed any increased activity at night because of these lights.  However, now that we were anchored out in the darkness we realized that our small lights were attracting a school of small fish.  These small fish in turn attracted pelicans and we seemed to have four or five pelicans around our boat feeding each night.  We were also visited at night by two sea lions that also seemed to be taking advantage of the lights to feed, as they kept swimming back and forth underneath our boat.   

The night after the northerly winds ended, the forecasted nine knots of southerly winds became 15 knots and we found ourselves bouncing in the steep chop that was coming in from the sea.  The wind kept us bow into the waves such that it became a bouncy ride in the V-berth that night, but not at all uncomfortable.  

However, the following morning the currents and winds had changed so much that we had started to turn side to the waves, and our boat started to rock and roll.  We pulled up anchor, but with the large, steep chop out in the more open sea we had no interest of venturing out and trying to beat our way into the wind and waves down to La Paz, which was where we wanted to eventually get to later in the day.  Our new friends from the anchorage did choose to venture out, and we watched their boat buck wildly in the waves as they made painfully slow progress.   

We tucked in behind Isla Gallo and were in the calm, but it was too deep to anchor, so we ventured two bays further down the shoreline and tucked in behind the point of Ensenada Gallina. 

Here we were anchored in the calm, protected from the waves until things calmed off around mid day. 

Then, we pulled up anchor and headed back to La Paz.  It had been a lovely eight days out exploring!