Winds in the Age of Sail
Tacking, i.e. using contrary wind to pull (sic) the sails, was always possible but wasted time because of the zigzagging required, and significantly delayed long voyages.
During the Age of Sail, winds and currents determined trade routes and therefore influenced European imperialism and modern political geography.
[3] Northwest Africa: Those sailing from Europe leave the Strait of Gibraltar and soon hit the Canary Current, which pushes them southwest down the African coast.
The solution was the volta do mar, in which captains would sail northwest across the winds and currents until they found the westerlies and were blown back to Europe.
Further south the Cape Verde Islands developed a system of slave-worked sugar plantations which was later exported to Brazil.
Northwest Africa was the starting point for longer voyages, the Spanish heading southwest from the Canaries and the Portuguese south from Cape Verde.
In 1482 Diogo Cão continued south against the Benguela Current and the southeast trade winds, reaching the Congo River in 1482 and Cape Cross in Namibia in 1485.
Finding no land after a number of days, he turned north and reached Mossel Bay about 400 km east of Cape Town.
Guessing that he had found the route to India, he turned back, discovered and rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and reached Lisbon in 1488.
After rounding the bulge of Africa, he sailed directly south across the trade winds and, helped by the Brazil Current, reached the roaring forties.
He took the southeast trade winds directly northwest across the South Atlantic to the Cape Verde Islands, the Azores, and home.
In 1500 Pedro Álvares Cabral sailed somewhat west of Da Gama's route and bumped onto the coast of Brazil.
Under the leadership of Afonso de Albuquerque they captured Goa in 1510 for their main base, captured Malacca in 1511 to control the Strait of Malacca, tried to block the mouths of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, and built forts in Mozambique to pick up fresh water and wait for the summer monsoon.
In 1595 Jan Huyghen van Linschoten published previously-secret Portuguese sailing directions for the Indian Ocean.
[5] Caribbean: Columbus underestimated the size of the Earth and thought he could reach China by doing a grand volta do mar, going west on the trade winds and returning home on the westerlies.
In 1513 Juan Ponce de León discovered the Gulf Stream while exploring the east coast of Florida.
A few years later his pilot, Anton de Alaminos, used the Gulf Stream to push him north to the westerlies and return to Spain.
In 1565 Andrés de Urdaneta found a wind system that would reliably blow a ship eastward back to the Americas.
Fernandez-Armesto thinks that southbound ships stood out to sea from Panama to avoid the Humboldt Current, but offers no good evidence.
Cape Horn westbound is difficult because the wind blows from the west and the east-bound Antarctic Circumpolar Current is forced through the gap between Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica.
The nineteenth century Clipper Ship Route went from Europe southward to the roaring forties, took them to Australia, and continued east around Cape Horn and returned to England.
