Did you read the readers comments at the end of the Independent Article? You should they're hilarious.
On the West-to-East aspect. What happened to the craft they used? Why did the indigenous people to the Westward stop building and using them? Voyages in replica craft that tie back to Egypt have all been basically current drifting voyages and have all been East-to-West. There are archaeological examples that show the development of boat building skills on the Eastern side of the Atlantic and in the Middle and Far East - Nothing even remotely like that in the Americas.
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sj