What was Mulek’s Course to the Land of Promise? – Part III

Continuing from the previous post regarding how Mulek and those with him reached the Land of Promise and what route they took and what routes they did not take that are popular among theorists.
    In the previous two posts, the first suggestion of sailing out of the Mediterranean was shown to be next to impossible because of the political environment of the time.

The second course, eastward through Indonesia to Mesoamerica

Below is the second suggested course:
2. Mulek left the Arabian Peninsula and sailed directly east, around India and through Indonesia and then across the Pacific Ocean to land on the west coast of Central America.
    In this second course, any passage eastward from the coast of Arabia would be impossible for an ocean vessel capable of sailing across deep water, a scenario thoroughly discussed in the book “Lehi Never Saw Mesoamerica.” In short, the winds and currents would be against such a voyage the entire ten thousand miles to the Americas in the Western Hemisphere.
    The winds and currents flow from the Pacific Ocean westward in the opposite direction the ship would have to sail, and when those currents and winds hit Indonesia, they continue to flow westward in many swirling and cross-current directions, creating dangerous waters among the thousands of islands that block this passage from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
    While it is true that shallow-bottom Chinese junks and small coastal boats operated among the islands to India, these were ships not capable of sailing into deep water where they would have been smashed to pieces in high waves and storms. And contrary to popular myth, such ships never reached the Western Hemisphere, a voyage of about 7,000 miles across the Pacific against winds and currents.  

Some of the 17,500 plus islands scattered across the path of a ship sailing eastward through Indonesia

It should also be considered that Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world, covering an area of 742,300 square miles and 1.13 square miles of land area that extends east to west for 3,200 miles. The archipelago consists of five major islands and about 30 smaller groups, of which 6,000 are today inhabited. Any vessel going through Indonesia to reach the Pacific Ocean would have required experienced sailing skill to wind their way through the thousands of islands with their sandy cays and rocky reefs  filling this waterway.
    In addition, to think that those carrying Mulek across the sea would not have stopped and probably stayed on one of the thousands of lush islands they passed seems out of character for these emigrants—after all, Zedekiah's royal household was not particularly receptive to the word of the Lord. It should be understood that Indonesia is famous today throughout the world for its islands and beautiful landscapes. It also has two islands, Java, which is the size of New York state, and Sumatra, much larger
    Again, this would not have been a viable course for Mulek to take simply because of the contrary winds and currents and the need for very experienced seamanship to even negotiate such a dangerous course.
    That leads us to the third possible course for Mulek to take, and that is he left the Arabian Peninsula and sailed down past Madagascar, around the cape of Africa and up the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean to land on the east coast of the Land of Promise. This would be the course for either an east coast landing to Mesoamerica, or a south or east coast landing in North America.

Proposed Mulek course by theorists that leaves Arabia, from which Lehi sailed, but then heads around Africa 

In the third case shown above, such a course around Africa might seem possible when looking at a map, however, the currents around Madagascar along the African coastal waters flows northward at all times, blocking any southern voyage. Beyond that is the Agulhas current which flows southward, but is then directed to the east and northward by the retroflection region and turns either directly east into the Southern Ocean or flows upward into the Indian Ocean and back to Madagascar.
    In addition, the currents and winds flow in the opposite direction around the Cape of Africa, and in the southern Atlantic, all currents flow southeasterly and about halfway to the north, they flow southwesterly—constantly in the opposite direction of a voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

Vasco da Gama’s first voyage around Africa, which required him to swing far out toward Brazil to pick up the southern currents past Africa before turning north into the Indian Ocean. The 2300 miles noted is between Calicut and Malindi. Light Blue Arrows are the direction of ocean currents

In fact, when Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon to reach India and back, a total distance of 24,000 miles, taking two years. However, on his return trip he barely managed 25 miles per day, just over one mile per hour on the seas. In sailing back across the Indian Ocean alone, from Kerala in the southwest corner of the Indian Peninsula across the Indian Ocean to Malindi (just north of Mombasa) in what is now Kenya, a distance of 2300 miles, was very difficult with 30 men of his crew dying from lack of proper nourishment on this part of his voyage. In fact, only 54 of his original 170-member crew survived to return to Portugal in 1499.
    This part of the return voyage took three months—averaging 25 miles per day along the route it is claimed that Mulek would have taken. Though it was only less than 10% of the distance, it took almost one-third the time because of the conflicting winds and currents head across the Indian Ocean.   
    It was this lucrative spice trade, which included cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper, and turmeric, that was ferried overland by Muslim traders, who charged exuberant prices, that caused the Europeans to look for a less expensive way to get to the spices in India (Calicut).

Vasco da Gama, the first to sail around the Cape of Africa from Lisbon to India and back, opening up the spice trade to Europeans

After decades of sailors trying to reach the Indies, with thousands of lives and dozens of vessels lost in shipwrecks, da Gama (left) landed in Calicut, called Kohikode today, which was known as the City of Spices anciently, and was the major trading point of Indian spices (John W. Parry, Spices: The Story of Spices; The spices described, 2 vol. , Chemical Publications, New York, 1969; Federic Rosengarten, Jr., The Book Of Spices, Jove Publications, New York, 1969, pp23-96).
(See the next post, the fourth possible way will be covered in “How Did Mulek Get to the Land of Promise? Part IV” which shows the only route Mulek could have taken and where he landed in the Land of Promise)