The Atlantic Discoveries
Sailing & Sea
Madeira, the Azores and the African coast: the training ground for the global voyages.
Before Vasco da Gama reached India and Cabral reached Brazil, the Portuguese spent eight decades mapping the Atlantic. Madeira (1418 to 1419), the Azores (1427) and a systematic year-by-year exploration of the African coast were the training school for the global voyages that followed.