A little bit bit of wind crossing to Spain.

A little bit bit of wind crossing to Spain.
From Formentera we planned a simple crossing to Spain, some 70 plus nm away. We left late as we were waiting for a part. the sky was grey but eh forecasts was favourable if a bit light. We set off on a dead run with about 10 knots of wind, we saw a rain cloud ahead and sailed around it, and were now using an engine to keep up our average speed, in order to get to Mainland Spain in Day light. Suddenly the wind died and went in front of us, then a squall came in from the other side, I couldn't even take the main , but managed to to let the sails go, the wind built in seconds to 43-46 knots, it was raining and we had lightening. The foam was being blown off the tops of the waves. I have to admit to being a little terrified. We were30 miles from land any way we looked at it. I dropped the main, in the most un-seaman like manner, gunned the engines to try to get the boat head to wind, which caused the fan belt to smoke, cue Sophie smelling smoke in the cabin!!!!!!
We rolled the jib and the alarm from the auto pilot screeched really loudly to let us know we were off course. I of course thought the alarm was the fire alarm from the smoke (fan belt,) and was now in a a complete state of panic, and could not release the auto helm which would not return to manual. Finally we managed to hove to , then run with the storm before restoring steerage, working out the cause of the smoke and and tidying up the sails. we then edged forwards at 3 knots in 30-35 knots of breeze, after about 1 hour the wind dropped and we rolled out a few sails and got ourselves going at about 10 knots in 25 knots of breeze.
We finally had the Spanish coast in sight and the wind dropped, so that we actually had to motor the last 2 miles, in a glorious sun set. But we learnt a few lessons. First one is don;t panic, second is panicking is quite a fast way to get things done, third, the boat was very good and was a stable platform through out. Fourth, always be prepared for the unexpected especially under dark clouds.