Where Did Lehi Land Along the Coast?

As has been stated in numerous posts here, Nephi’s ship was “driven forth before the wind to the land of promise,” which suggests that they were carried along on the ocean currents and winds to a spot where a landing could be affected. While Mesoamerican Theorists like to take Nephi against the winds and currents across the central portion of the Pacific Ocean, no ship in 600 B.C. (even up until about the 18th or 19th century) could have made such a journey in a weather sailing ship against the winds and currents. Nor would a northern journey up past Japan and along the west coast of North America have taken a sailing ship in 600 B.C. much past southern California before sending it back out to sea again and back across the Pacific-and more likely, down to Hawaii and not North America at all.

The fact of the matter is, only one path was open to a sailing ship leaving the south Arabian coast and that is illustrated below along the Roaring Forties driven by the Prevailing Westerlies and the West Wind Drift (see earlier posts for a full description, or the book: Lehi Never Saw Mesoamerica).

Lehi’s Course with winds and currents across the Pacific (southern) Ocean.

It should also be understood that a ship moving along the coast of a continent must have a place to land that fits three absolutely critical criteria: 1) Winds die down to allow a shoreward movement, 2) Currents stop flowing to allow a shoreward movement, and 3) The shore must have a landing site. As to the latter, most of South America (and much of North America) is covered in coastal cliffs and impossible landing sites.

However, in South America, along the Chilean coast, a remarkable area exists at the 30º South Latitude, where the Bay of Coquimbo is located. The swift ocean currents here drop to almost zero, and the swift winds also drop to almost zero, and this coastal area has a unique Mediterranean climate like that of Jerusalem from which the Nephites came. No other area in the western hemisphere has such an exact Mediterranean climate nor a place where winds and currents fall off to nothing where a ship in 600 B.C. could so easily have affected a landing.