They should have left the island to leeward, heading into the Caribbean and away from the archipelago.

As it was, they would now be forced to pass through this archipelago again so as to make Curacao, and this passage was not to be accomplished without some measure of risk to themselves.

At any point between the islands they might come upon an equal or superior craft; whether she were Spanish or English would be equally bad for them, and being undermanned they were in no case to fight.

To lessen this risk as far as possible, Don Diego directed at first a southerly and then a westerly course; and so, taking a line midway between the islands of Tobago and Grenada, they won safely through the danger-zone and came into the comparative security of the Caribbean Sea.
"If this wind holds," he told them that night at supper, after he had announced to them their position, "we should reach Curacao inside three days." For three days the wind held, indeed it freshened a little on the second, and yet when the third night descended upon them they had still made no landfall.

The Cinco Llagas was ploughing through a sea contained on every side by the blue bowl of heaven.