Magellan Sails the Pacific

"A new paper by North Carolina State University archaeologist Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick shows that Ferdinand Magellan’s historic circumnavigation of the globe was likely influenced in large part by unusual weather conditions – including what we now know as El Niño – which eased his passage across the Pacific Ocean, but ultimately led him over a thousand miles from his intended destination."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/ncsu-nsr051508.php