who was the first European to cross the Pacific

You notice this difference pretty quickly when you spend a lot of time out on the open sea. During the day, the land gets scorching hot while the water stays refreshingly cool. It basically comes down to how these surfaces absorb heat. Land is solid and opaque, so the sun's energy hits the surface and stays right there, heating up the top layer immediately. Water, on the other hand, is transparent and fluid, so the heat gets distributed much deeper and churned around by currents, which keeps the surface temperature from spiking like it does on the beach.

Also, water has a much higher specific heat capacity, which is just a fancy way of saying it takes a whole lot more energy to raise its temperature compared to soil or rock. Think of it like a giant thermal battery that takes forever to charge up but also holds onto that heat for a long time. That is exactly why you get those nice sea breezes in the afternoon; the air over the land warms up and rises, pulling the cooler air from over the water inland to fill the gap. It is pretty simple physics once you see it in action out there.