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I was surprised, too. I found this article[0] which specifically calls out boats as having been invented before the wheel. It puts the wheel's invention in good perspective, I think.

Regarding boats capable of crossing the ocean: Australia was settled 40,000 years ago, presumably by settlers who arrived by boat.

[0] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-salute-to-the...

More like 65,000 years.

https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature22968

The useful, all terrain, load bearing wheel sounds more complicated to me than a watertight bucket with ropes and cloth.

A dugout tree with a paddle is even more simple.

I think that the step from dugout to outrigger canoe is relatively small and comes with massive advantages

While they are obviously the end point of a technological development, Polynesian outrigger sailing canoes are both extremely efficient (some evidence points to them being the first craft to be capable of exceeding hull speed) and scalable. They're also a Stone Age technology

They did not have to cross the sea, but follow the (ice-covered) coastline.