This was my reaction as well - every article I've read seems to call out "changes the way we think they navigated because out of sight of land", but this may be

This was my reaction as well - every article I've read seems to call out "changes the way we think they navigated because out of sight of land", but this may be a perverse form of survivor bias (ships tried this and sank), or as you point out, it could have been blown off course where it then sank.