Columbus’s daily ship’s log of the voyage was presented to Queen Isabella when he returned to Spain in 1493 and has been lost since her death. Isabella had a copy made and given to Columbus in 1493, which has been lost since the 16th century. Before the copy vanished, Columbus’s son Ferdinand reviewed it, and Bartolomé de Las Casas prepared an abstract summarizing and sometimes copying portions of it. This abstract has survived, and today we refer to it as the Journal.
The Journal omits recording information on some dates, either because Columbus didn’t record information on those dates or because Las Casas didn’t summarize or copy it. But information as to some dates omitted can be found summarized or copied in Las Casas’s Historia de las Indias, which also adds significant detail and color to the dates that are presented in the Journal. Additional information sometimes can also be found in the biography of Columbus written by his son Ferdinand.
There are no Journal entries for the dates November 7–11. The information from all three sources combined as to November 8 is that Columbus wished to sail from Cuba’s Bahía de Gibara region but contrary winds impeded that.