Columbus hits the Coast

POD: 25 September 1492. Martin Alonzo Pinson does not mistake a cloud for the legendary island of Antilles, so the three ships continue on a slightly higher latitude than OTL, missing the Bahamas and making landfall somewhere near *Daytona Beach. Columbus is sure that they have landed on the North tip of Chipangu, so he orders them to turn North, hoping to find a route to Cathay.

Of course, to his chagrin and the delight of his homesick crew, the coast continues to lead northeast, all the way up to *Chesapeake Bay.

By the time they return home two things are clear: this is not Chipangu, and the western route to the Indies was a mirage. But Columbus doesn't worry; he has discovered a whole new continent.
 
Colombus's crew mutine and returns to Spain way before he reachese *Chesapeake Bay. Let's be clear : on first hand, Colombus was sure that he was right about Indias being recheable while everyone else disagree.
He had to make several travels, encountering no trace of any civilisation that could be assimilated by far to China to wonder if *maybe* he could be wrong.

On the other hand, the crew was more than homesick : they were hungry, thirsty, and a 'it's adventure time" cruise on american atlantic shore isn't going to do much for that.

When coming back to home, they wouldn't have discovered much than that they were landmasses at the west of the Ocean Sea (something that was acceptable for contemporary minds since a long time), but would either tie them to mythological exemple, or (if Colombus is still alive and able to speak for himself) would insist that is Asia (just not exactly Cipangu, but it have to be close : anyway we can ravitail there).

I don't think, given late medieval mentalities, that the idea of a "whole new land" would be that quick and easy to apprehend on first hand : the first mental reflex would be to identify these as something known or at least mentionned somewhere.
 
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