Seeing the danger imminent, he allowed himself to drift in whatever direction the wind took him, because he could do nothing else.

Then the Pinta, of which Martin Alonzo Pinzon was the commander, began to drift also; but she disappeared very soon, although all through the night the Admiral made signals with lights to her, and she answered as long as she could, till she was prevented, probably by the force of the tempest, and by her deviation from the course which the Admiral followed." Columbus did not see the Pinta again until she arrived at Palos.

He was himself driven fifty-four miles towards the northeast.
The journal continues.

"After sunrise the strength of the wind increased, and the sea became still more terrible.

The Admiral all this time kept his mainsail lowered, so that the vessel might rise from among the waves which washed over it, and which threatened to sink it.
The Admiral followed, at first, the direction of east-northeast, and afterwards due northeast.