Mrrzy: "Which way do the currents go?"

I was wondering about that.

It looks like intrepid sailors could set sail from Mexico and take the Gulf Stream up to the North Atlantic Drift, turn right, ahem, tack starboard, and go as far as Nova Zembla, if they wanted to.

But why would they want to? The westward continents had so much space, so much game, and so few people, that--I would guess--if you wanted to get away from your neighbors or just look for greener pastures, it wouldn't occur to you to set out on the ocean or trudge across some putative arctic bridge to Europe. Maybe if you were hemmed in on the coast . . . .