It seems my calculations were set horribly wrong. I did not expect the path to the straight to be so long and rigorous. In addition to the hard sailing weather not being kind to us, many times we were lost in the midst of storms with no idea of the geography ahead. Many reefs, rocks, islands dotted the straight making it near impossible to navigate through the straight. On the 21st of October a storm swept the San Antonio and the Concepoion away, my own ship the Trinidad and the Victoria were put to the very limit of our ability as we desperately navigated our way out of the storm.
After spending several days on repairs we headed towards a rocky promontory beyond which we believed to be the wreckage of the two ships, instead we found, el paso, the strait that we had for so long been looking for. Good fortune smiled on me again when the San Antonio and the Concepion believed to be lost, joined us as we made way into the straight. We slowly made our way into the straight sending the Concepion and the San Antonio to scout and navigate the way for my ship and the Victoria. It turned out to be a grievous mistake, the San Antonio under Gomez's command defected from my cause and slipped past us, setting sail back east to Spain taking with it more than half of our supplies. Even with that I commanded my three ship fleet to go on, for thirty eight days we suffered through storms, the cold, and sailing around blocks of ice floating or even hidden in the narrow waters.
We have almost entirely eaten our rations, most have begun to spoil, but it does not matter now the journey from here to the Spice Islands is short and will only last for a few weeks. The ocean now looks very still though, it does not seem as though it will pose a threat to us. Very calm and beautiful, my shipmates and I have named it the Mar Pacifico.
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