The Barrier of the Humboldt Current

The Humboldt Current has its beginning from a welling up in the Antarctic area and moving northward along the west coast of South America. This current, also called the Peruvian Current, is the north-moving extension of the West Wind Drift which is blown clockwise around the globe by the Prevailing Westerlies, sometimes referred toi as the Roaring Forties, and is occasionally suggested by anthropologists as being an inviting highway for eastbound migrations across the Pacific.

This circumnavigational current is part of the well-known gigantic circulation of surface water in the southeast Pacific and is a cold ocean current drifting east towards Tierra del Fuego and southern Chile, where part of the water passes south of the Americas through the Drake Passage and into the extreme South Atlantic Ocean while the other part, blocked by the projecting tip of the South American mainland, is forced in a big circular movement up along the Chilean coast and becomes the Peruvian or Humboldt Current.

Any wind driven vessel running along the northern half of this West Wind Drift and Prevailing Westerlies current would automatically be turned north into the Humboldt Current and sail upward, along the west coast of Chile until it reached the 30º south latitude, where the current and winds drop to nothing, allowing the vessel to be driven into shore at an area today called Coquimbo Bay (see March 13, 2010 post “Where Did Lehi Land?”)

This Peruvian or Humboldt Current, which sweeps along at a considerable speed, continues up the shoreline of Peru then is shoved outward by the extension of land in a great sweep due west and into the South Equatorial Current. Weather-driven craft that are “driven forth before the wind,” not landing along the coast of Chile or Peru, would become trapped in this current and on the ocean side automatically conveyed from South America westward to Polynesia, or on its inland side, into the South Equatorial Current and driven swiftly back across the Pacific toward Indonesia.

This Humboldt Current slows along its ocean-side as it moves up the coast because of an increasing set towards the west of an upswelling off both Chile and Peru. If a weather-driven boat does not set to shore along this point, where the winds and currents die down to allow inland movement, it will be swept further westward along the current as it moves northward and finally, trapped by the current's westerly march into the Pacific.

It is possible to reach the Ecuadorean coast along this current between May and November when it forces its way far up the coast before it is driven west by the Nino Current. However, from December to April, the warm rain-accompanied Nino dominates the entire coast of Ecuador and inhibits northward travel by sea from Chile-Peru. Thus, a trip that typically takes six days by sail with the wind and currents could, if going against these currents, take as much as 15 to 20 days, and sometimes as much as 70 to 80 days to fight its way into Ecuadorian waters. Under normal conditions, it would not be possible to sail this current north to Mesoamerica. Only a narrow-draft coastal vessel hugging the shore could make such a voyage.