First Diary Entry

My first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean in 1476 nearly cost me my life as the commercial fleet I was sailing with was attacked by French privateers off the coast of Portugal. My ship was burned and I had to swim to the Portuguese shore and make my way to Lisbon, Portugal. There, I eventually settled and married Felipa Perestrello. We had a son, Diego in about 1480. My wife died soon after and I moved to Spain.

I participated in several other expeditions to Africa gaining knowledge of the Atlantic currents flowing east and west from the Canary Islands. Muslim domination of the trade routes through the Middle East makes travel to India and China difficult. Believing a route sailing west across the Atlantic would be quicker and safer, I devised a plan to sail west to get reach the East. I believed the earth to be a sphere approximately 63% its actual size and the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be about 2,300 miles.

Rejected by the Portuguese king for a three-ship voyage of discovery, I took my plan first to Genoa and then to Venice but was rejected there too. I then went to the Spanish monarchy of Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon, in 1486. Their nautical experts too were skeptical and initially, I was being rejected. The idea however, must have intrigued the monarchs, for they kept me on a retainer. But their focus was on a war with the Muslims and I would have to wait.