Why weren't Atlantic islands beyond the Caribbean settled before Europeans arrived?

by PurplePeopleEatur

Considering how the Polynesians practically settled all islands across the Pacific Ocean I thought that the Atlantic Ocean would have been the same.

Bermuda and the Azores stand out to me.

EDIT: I just learned that the Canary Islands were populated pre colonization.

If this belongs in Ask Anthropologists please tell me.

holytriplem

Bermuda and the Azores are very remote islands, and you can't very easily island-hop from the North American continent to those islands. I can't think of any Native American civilisations which would have had the technology to build the ships needed to go there. As for why they weren't settled from the Old World, the ocean currents would oppose any boat attempting to reach the Azores or Bermuda from Europe.