Yup, it's not a coincidence. Heyerdahl said that the southern Pacific islands (which are relatively few for most of that expanse) were settled first from the east, because that's the direction of the current, and anywhere there are pre-modern artifacts and such, the Polynesian strata are always atop whatever came first.
The Humboldt current (seems like we had a topic related to this lately) led to navigation eastward on the north end, and based on the widely variant cultures, genes, and language families (not to mention two coastlines and a much more narrow Atlantic on the east) the Americas were settled over and over -- just as the rest of the Earth has been.
Thank you for sharing that. I also believe he was correct about the origin of the Scandinavians. I spent a couple months on Google Earth digging for through waterways from the Caspian and Black seas to the Baltic. They are there and go all the way through.