_Wednesday, December 17th._--The wind blew quite fresh during the night from about N.E. by N. To-day it is blowing a moderate gale from about N.N.E. This is probably a _norther_ from the American coast, modified by its contact with the N.E. trade wind. The clouds look hard and wintry. Close-reefed at nightfall.... The gale has continued all day, with a rough sea, in which the ship is rolling and tumbling about. Weather cloudy and gloomy-looking, and the wind moaning and whistling through the rigging--enough to give one the blues. These are some of the comforts of sea-going, and we have had our share of them in the Alabama.
_Thursday, December 18th._--The gale continues, with dense clouds in every direction obscuring the heavens so that we get no meridian altitude. I got a glimpse of the sun at about nine minutes past noon. When one's ship is in a doubtful position, how eagerly and nervously one watches the shifting clouds near noon, and how remorsely they sometimes close up their dense masses just at the critical moment, shutting out from us the narrowly-watched face of the sun! One is foolish enough sometimes almost to feel a momentary resentment against inanimate nature--weak mortals that we are!
The gale has drifted us so far to leeward that the wind from its present quarter will no longer permit us to "lay through" the Yucatan passage, so at 2 P.M. we tacked to the southward and eastward. Weather still thick in the afternoon, with light rain at intervals. We had a very ugly sea lashing us this morning--the ship rolling so heavily as to awaken me frequently, though I sleep in a swinging cot; and the water swashing over the decks, and rushing by bucketsful down the companion-way, which we are obliged to keep open to avoid being smothered.
_Friday, December 19th._--The gale continues with the tenacity of a norther, this being the third day. This is but a foretaste of the weather we may expect in the Gulf of Mexico. Being now in the Gulf of Honduras, there is but a small strip of land between us and it.
_Saturday, December 20th._--As ugly a day as one often sees, with a great variety of wind and weather. In the morning the wind was fresh from the N.E., with flying clouds, and a bright sun, now and then obscured. At about 9 A.M. a cloud bank in the north began to rise, and by 11.30 we had a densely overcast sky, with heavy rain-squalls. I was running for Cape Catoche, and was greatly disappointed at not getting a meridian altitude, especially after the promise of the morning. At about 11.30 made the land--two islands, as described by the man at the masthead. At 4 P.M. sounded in twenty-eight fathoms. Weather threatening a gale. At six, double-reefed the topsails, and sounded in twenty-five fathoms. I shall endeavour to feel my way around the Cape, and gradually bear up for the westward. The bank is apparently clean and safe, but still groping one's way in the dark in strange waters is a somewhat nervous operation.