[ChemistCat]

It's actually harder to believe that they didn't make it there before Columbus. Put men in boats and give them beer, and off they go.

[U S Army EOD]

From what I have read, most learned individuals agreed at that time something was there. However, was it worth going over there and coming back? (Of course if you are the one going it is always worth coming back).

They kind of looked at it like we look at the moon. And at that time getting to the New World and back was a bigger problem than going to the moon.

And if they went to the New World, they were concerned about the morons that would say that it was a hoax. The same morons that produced off spring that believe we never made it to the moon and the Earth is still flat.

[BradyLS]

Crossing the broad ocean would be daunting, but theire's no reason to think they couldn't touch Iceland, then Greenland, then Labrador, and so on via the Great Circle route. Currents may have helped them a bit, too.

[VOA]

Put men in boats and give them beer, and off they go.

And tell them there's gold and women for the taking over the horizon...
and they'll row right off the edge of the world!