That’s pretty interesting since there were tales about Christopher Columbus hanging with North Africans near Spain who had trading with the Vikings in earlier ages. I’ve always felt he knew where he was going.
I think that he knew that he could get to the Spice Islands by sailing West and he probably knew about how far it was, based on the Viking sagas, or other interpretations of the Viking sagas. What he probably did not know, was that there were two entire continents in his way.