It should also be noted, that the seashore along Salalah has very strong ocean currents and the limestone outcroppings and cliffs steep drastically and the underwater currents are considered unsafe even for experienced swimmers. This coastal turmoil is what Nephi’s ship would have entered as it cleared the inlet of Khor Rori and moved into the Sea of Arabia.
Nephi’s
ship would have left the calm waters of the inlet at Khor Rori and entered the
difficult and turbulent subsurface waters of the Sea of Arabia; however, with
the two cliffs on either side of the entrance, the waters out of the channel
were less active and would have been easier negotiated, even more an
inexperienced crew
Along this line, it is always interesting that people will hold to their own opinions irrespective of the facts involved. When Nephi left the inlet along the shore and entered the Sea of Arabia, his ship would have entered a single ocean current. Depending upon the time of the year, this wind and current (monsoon southwest or northeast), would have filled his ship’s sails and driven the vessel in the direction it blew. At the same time, the current moving past the shore would have pulled his vessel into its stream, which is for both winds and current, moving toward the southwest six months of the year, or toward the northeast the other six months of the year.
The
first current encountered is a weak coastal current that flows from west to
east along the shoreline toward Pakistan and India ; the outer current of this
system is a stronger current that flows from east to west and toward Somalia in
North Africa
Thus, while Lehi would have landed where the Liahona pointed, the instrument pointed where the Lord directed it—where the winds and currents he established flowed. Thus Lehi’s course was restricted to those winds and currents available to them throughout their voyage. To think otherwise is to reject the very purpose of the winds and currents the Lord established as he organized the world. Consequently, He sent Lehi overland to that location where the winds and currents the Lord established would propel Nephi’s ship to the Land of Promise.
Left: The Somalia Current flowing north and east; Right: The Somalia
Current reversal, flowing south
Norwegian oceanographer and meteorologist Harald U. Sverdrup applied the Ekman transport while including pressure gradient forces to develop a theory for this, called the Sverdrup balance, or Sverdrup relation, which is a relationship between the wind stress exerted on the surface of the open ocean and the vertically integrated meridional (north-south) transport of ocean water.
Aside from the oscillatory motions associated with tidal flow, there are two primary causes of large scale flow in the ocean: (1) thermohaline processes, which induce motion by introducing changes at the surface in temperature and salinity and therefore in seawater density, and (2) wind forcing. According to Svendrup, of the two, the wind is by far the most important. After making the assumption that frictional dissipation is negligible, Sverdrup obtained the simple result that the meridional mass transport (the Sverdrup transport) is proportional to the curl of the wind stress, which is known as the Sverdrup relation;
Now far to the west of this gyre, is the Somalia Current which hugs the coast of Africa moving northward from June to September, then reversing itself to flow south from November to February.
Left: The Indian Ocean gyres, the one north of the Equator is considered
a weak current; on the other hand, the one south of the Equator is a strong
gyre current; Right: Dark Blue Arrows, shows the Winter Monsoon, blowing from
the northeast toward the southwest; Light Blue Arrow, shows Lehi’s course
skirting around the North Indian Ocean Gyre and within the Somalia Current;
Purple Arrow: Shows Lehi’s course picking up the northern, west-flowing arm of
the South Indian Ocean Gyre (and around toward the southeast to pick up the
Southern Ocean heading south of Australia and out across the Pacific Ocean
There is no mystery about it, and the facts of the earth’s rotational mechanics cannot be violated—the Lord set them up, caused a wind to pass over the Earth (Genesis 8:1) and caused it to blow (Psalms 147:18), and the Lord used them for his purpose (Amos 4:13), to first get the Jaredites to the promised land (Ether 2:24), and then to get Lehi and his colony to the Land of Promise. Could He have picked them up and set them down without the ship being built and crossing the oceans? Of course. The Lord is not limited, but throughout history He has used those very mechanics of His creation to accomplish His objectives and to cause man to achieve the greatness of His creation, not by relieving man of challenge, but by making sure man faced challenges that he could conquer and learned to overcome them.
Lehi reaching his Land of Promise was a major challenge: 8 years in the wilderness; 2 years building a ship; and many months at sea in totally unfamiliar surroundings, fraught with danger, brought Lehi and his party to his promised land. And in the process, Nephi rose from a young adult to a man of great achievements and capability, destined to establish a branch of the House of Israel in the Western Hemisphere.
This is very important information. A few years ago we had a fellow that told us that garbage from Arabia ends up in India and eventually Malaysia where he said the Nephites settled. I told him he wasn't considering the wind and the fact they were sailing. Garbage is far different than a sailing ship. So rather than this information being overkill, it is very important. It really renders the other models as impossible.
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