"The Valar made an island and floated it across the ocean! It's still parked on this end, it's called Tol Eressea, you can go visit it."

"Oh, it's just across an ocean. You don't have ships?"

"We have ships. Ships that can safely cross the open ocean are a hard problem."

"Is it? It doesn't seem to be so back home. I wish I knew more about shipbuilding."

"Do you know what powers the ones back home?"

"Wind in sails? Oars?"

"We have those. They're not spectacularly reliable for crossing oceans."

"Maybe that's not the salient difference, then? How do they typically fail to cross oceans?"

"If the winds aren't favorable you could end up anywhere of a thousand miles of coastline on the other side, and then not find a safe place to get the boat close enough to shore, and you'd need lots of food and supplies and food rots once you leave Valinor. That's my understanding of the technical hurdles, anyway."

"I know a handful of ways that people use to preserve food for long sea journeys, but mostly by name, not how it's actually done...you can smoke and/or salt meat to preserve it, that I know, and there's a...thing? With sugar? That you can do to fruit? But I have no idea how hardtack biscuits are made, at all. The unfavorable winds thing sounds like a steering problem, not a power problem, steering's usually done with rudders I think...?"

"We have those. Navigation is still absurdly difficult over the relevant distances."

"I think sailors navigate by the stars sometimes? And there's a thing called a sextant, but hell if I know what that is."

"We can easily do journeys of the relevant length if we hug the land, but that's not an option for sailing back across the ocean. We don't even know how far it is."

"No one who came across in the other direction remembers or is interested in sharing if they do?"

"They were on a floating island that took months to cross, that's not the best situation for estimating distance."

"Fair enough. Oh, compasses, compasses are a navigational aid."

"Hmm? How do those work?"

"They have little magnetic needles that point north?"

"That'd be handy. Magic?"

"No? Just magnetism."

"...why would magnetism point you north?"

"Because the planet is a giant magnet? I guess this one might not be."

"I think we'd probably have noticed if the planet were a giant magnet. Also I am not sure how that'd work."

"I think it has something to do with the way it spins? I guess maybe this one doesn't spin, if it doesn't have a--well, a day cycle like the one I'm used to, where it's dark half the time."

"As far as I know it does not spin."