I heard he was focused on the Queen.
The wars between Christian Europe and the Ottomans continued!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lepanto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna
Columbus was relying on Persian geographer Alfraganus for the circumference of the globe, which created two problems for him. First, the figure Alfraganus calculated for one degree of latitude at the equator was too small by about 5%. And Columbus Ass-U-Me-d that the published figure for Alfraganus’ estimate of the circumference at the equator was given in Roman miles when it actually was in Arabic miles, which are more than 30% longer than Roman miles.
Based on these figures he calculated he’d find the Japans at 85° west longitude when its actual position is 140° east longitude. 85° west is about where Panama City Beach is.
His last landfall before sailing into the great unknown was the Canary Islands. Since the range of a sailing vessel is primarily limited by how much rations it can carry for the crew, and they would have provisioned before leaving Tenerife, so the critical distance was from there.
Columbus figured to make the Indies in about 3100 (modern nautical) miles from Tenerife. The distance he sailed before reaching San Salvador was so near that that it only served to increase his conviction that he had found the Indies.
By all rights, Columbus and his crew should have died from thirst in the middle of a vast ocean with no land in sight, but fortune placed and unknown continent in his path that saved his life and made him a legend.
As Lefty Gomez said, “I’d rather be lucky than good.”