What is Opinion and What is Not? – Part V

Continuing from the previous posts regarding what is actually “fact” when dealing with the Land of Promise location, in which the first question to be asked and answered is “What does the scriptural record actually say?” 
7. “And it came to pass after they had loosed me, behold, I took the compass, and it did work whither I desired it. And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord; and after I had prayed the winds did cease, and the storm did cease, and there was a great calm. (1 Nephi 18:21).

Additionally, as pointed out and diagrammed in our book “Lehi Never Saw Mesoamerica,” the area south of Oman, within the Sea of Arabia, about a week or two sailing from the coast, is a low pressure area of major concern to sailing vessels where squalls, which are common, or tropical storms, winds over the open ocean are likely to reach force 7 or above

    Here, where the center of the subtropical gyre is a high pressure zone, circulation around the high pressure is counterclockwise due to the Coriolis effect with the weather varying frequently. The high pressure in the center is due to the westerly winds on the northern side of the gyre and easterly trade winds on the southern side, which cause frictional surface currents towards the latitude at the center of the gyre. Frequent cloudy, squally conditions and recurrent heavy showers and thunderstorms are common and vision on the open ocean is good except when reduced by heavy rain. In this area a vortex turns into a maelstrom as the storm increases causing downdrafts along the surface, which presents extreme danger for smaller craft.
    Here the monsoon, a giant sea breeze between the Asian massif and the Indian Ocean, is one of the most significant natural phenomena that influences the everyday life of more than 60 percent of the world's population. In summer, heating of the land produces a region of intense low surface pressure over northwestern India, Pakistan, and northern Arabia. A broad region of southwesterly winds develops, quite different from the northeast trades found in the other oceans at the same latitudes.
8. “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did guide the ship, that we sailed again towards the promised land” (1 Nephi 18:22).
    Nephi needed the Liahona to work, for evidently the compass showed him the course to follow and his job was to keep the steerage of the tiller or rudder so the vessel moved within the course of the flow of the current but toward the edge where it would not be subject to the curvature of the inner flow that moved a vessel into the high pressure maelstrom. This should suggest two things, first that the course was pre-determined by the wind and currents, since he was “driven forth before the wind,” and second that as long as he kept the ship within that current along the outer edge, they were sailing toward the promised land.

9) “After we had sailed for the space of many days we did arrive at the promised land” (1 Nephi 18:23).
    It would appear from Nephi’s almost singular description of this event, since he usually wrote about occurrences in greater detail, such as obtaining the brass plates, securing Ishmael and his family, the arguments with his brothers, the storm at sea, his broken bow, operation of the Liahona, even the pressure his brothers put on his aging parents, that the lack of any comment about sailing several thousand miles across the ocean, should suggest that it was both uneventful and brought about no difficulties or events whatever.
    This would certainly be the case of dropping down through the Indian Ocean to pick up the Southern Ocean and sailing across the to the Western Hemisphere where the route at the bottom of the globe would have been quick, short, and monotonous, though somewhat frightening because of the high winds and speeds attainable along that course. Nor would such a course have taken any seamanship ability other than keeping the rudder basically straight in following the West Wind Drift and winds of the Prevailing Westerlies. No simpler route could be found, nor a shorter one, nor a faster one.
    All of these are stated facts, based on the scriptural record as it was written, without any changes, additions, or eliminations. While the scripture does not cover Nephi’s landing or the events leading up to that, it might be of interest to know that in this part of the world, i.e., along the West Wind Drift (Antarctic Circumpolar Current) of the Southern Ocean and its Prevailing Westerlies winds, the current is basically straight, uninterrupted, from west to east, where it is circumpolar due to the lack of any landmass, along the Antarctic Convergence, where the cold Antarctic waters meet the warmer waters of the subantarctic, creating a zone of upwelling nutrients (perhaps the best fishing waters in the world). This area has been known to sailors for centuries, and greatly speeds up travel from west to east, and is the fastest sailing route around the world, once used by the speedy Clipper Ships and called the Clipper Route.

Image Five Main Oceans of the World, with the Southern Ocean connected to all the others at the bottom of the globe

    This Southern Ocean connects the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and serves as the principal pathway between them. Driven by the very strong westerly winds, vessels can reach high speeds, and the northern front of the Southern Ocean is diverted northward along the Humboldt Current along the western coast of South America. Interestingly enough, at the very area where it is said Lehi landed, 30º Latitude, on the Chilean coast, is where these fast currents die down to almost a standstill before picking up again and move up the Peruvian coast where they are forced out into the South Pacific Gyre by the land mass bulge of Peru. At this 30º South Latitude is the Bay of Coquimbo, and inland from that is La Serena, the only Mediterranean Climate location in the Western Hemisphere other than Southern California in the north.
    All that is left to discuss about this part of the journey is what Nephi found in the Land of Promise where they landed, pitched their tents, and tilled the ground for planting their seed “brought from Jerusalem.” This is an extremely important part of finding the location of the Land of Promise, since Nephi describes several very critical factors that must exist in the landing site in order to match his description of the land there. This also is where so many Theorsists’ err in claiming this or that location, because they simply do not match these descriptions at the landing sight as to what Nephi says he found.
    In two verses, Nephi describes seven things that have to be part of this landing site in any proposed location of the Land of Promise. The reason why this tends to eliminate most if not all other theories is simply because other theorists neglected to follow the earlier steps stated here and in the previous post, i.e., how Nephi got to the Land of Promise in the first place, via the winds and currents the Lord formed when he initially organized this planet.
    Stated briefly, and following the scriptural record of Nehi’s findings (1 Nephi 18:24-25), these seven items are:

“And it came to pass that we did begin to
1. till the earth, and we began to
2. plant seeds; yea, we did put all our seeds into the earth, which we had brought from the land of Jerusalem.
3. And it came to pass that they did grow exceedingly;
4. wherefore, we were blessed in abundance.
5. And it came to pass that we did find upon the land of promise, as we journeyed in the wilderness, that there were beasts in the forests of every kind
6. both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals, which were for the use of men.
7. And we did find all manner of ore, both of gold, and of silver, and of copper.”
(See the next post, “What is Opinion and What is Not? – Part VI,” for more regarding what is fact about the Land of Promise and the scriptural record by comparing the scriptural account with the location)