The colonists may have feared that a standard route across the Atlantic Ocean, with a stop in the Caribbean, would risk a Spanish attack. Nevertheless, it was feasible for the colonists to attempt a direct course to England. In 1563, French settlers at the failed Charlesfort colony built a crude boat and successfully (albeit desperately) returned to Europe. Alternatively, the Roanoke colonists could have sailed north along the coast, in the hopes of making contact with English fishing fleets in the Gulf of Maine.