<html><head></head><body><div class="yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><div>> And they had no engine to<br>>push the boat into an appropraite angle to the waves... just sales, 30<br>>feet high, swinging back and forth in the crows nest, with a bunch of guys<br>>pulling ropes to manipulate the sails with the wind hammering on them..<br><br>The "sales" would have been the result of the promotional hype.<br><br>Actually the voyage wasn't totally crazy. Cristoforo Colombo been<br>on numerous voyages. He figured out that at the latitude of the Canary Islands,<br>the winds usually blew from east to west and at a more northerly latitude<br>the winds blew from west to east. So he left Spain and sailed to the Canary<br>Islands. There he took on all the provisions he could carry, which was<br>about enough for 6 weeks. Obviously not the luxurious dining of modern day<br>cruise ships.<br><br>He headed west. If he didn't found anything after 3 weeks, he would simply<br>go north and ride the westerly winds back to Europe. They were almost<br>to the point of turning back when they happened to find an island.<br><br><div>BTW, I personally know several people who have sailed 25 or 30ft boats from the US to <br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">New Zealand. <br></div></div><div><br></div></div></div></body></html>