With not-so-friendly nations in control of the Mediterranean ports, it appears the Lord had Lehi's family detour into the Arabian desert and then eastward to the Arabian Sea. The scriptures give no indication of what route the Nephites followed once they set sail, but since they ended up in the regions around Cumorah in New York State, we can suppose they sailed west and rounded the southern tip of Africa into the Atlantic Ocean. After some three thousand miles, natural ocean currents hook to the northwest and then westward to South America, and they would have picked up the North Equatorial Current. Farther north, the currents move along the Atlantic coast clear to the Saint Lawrence River, which leads inland right to New York. But it appears the Lord led the Nephites inland along a southern route-perhaps from Chesapeake Bay along the west branch of the Susquehanna, which would have led with a short portage to the Alleghey River that heads in southwestern New York or from the gulf waters up the Mississippi River to the Ohio and then east to the Allegheny-the Lord led Mulek into the lands to the north, and Lehi into the land south (see Helaman 6:10).