Gil Eanes Rounds Cape Bojador

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For decades Portuguese caravels had turned back at the Saharan headland where, sailors swore, the sea boiled and monsters waited. Gil Eanes, on his second attempt, simply kept sailing south and discovered nothing but empty water. The psychological barrier of the West African coast dissolved that afternoon. His modest achievement proved the sea beyond the Saharan coast was navigable, opening the way to the Gulf of Guinea within two decades.