Cliff,
You should not get hung up on trade winds or currents when talking about sailing. It is possible to sail against currents if you want to get some place.

Actually, the Gulf Stream itself completes its circle at Tulum (Mayans think of the only sea port they historically had as a portal for that body of water) after moving along the North coast of South America, turning up and along the Central American coastline to Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula where it connects with the Gulf of Mexico waters to begin its journey over again up along the East Coast of America out to Bermuda and across to the UK and on down to Africa.

Going in the other direction the Chontal Maya do have a traceable trading route at least to Venezuela. Also, as one who has sailed those waters, the counter current that runs closest to the shore all along the Central American coastline is not difficult to travel with and the shallow drafted canoas of the Chontal did use it. The 700 miles from Columbia to the Greater Antilles is also a beam reach with barely any current affect. And from the Greater Antilles you are essentially a few miles from the Yucatan.

Van Sertima was not a mariner and in some of his writings it shows but the concept of Olmec coming from Africa is more valid than a group of people mysteriously rising out of nowhere and creating a culture. African canoa designs are almost direct duplicates of most Mayan canoa designs. For Africans (Olmecs) to travel from West Africa, not necessarily Senegal, to the areas of  Campeche, Tabasco or Vera Cruz is as feaseable as the Spanish doing that route without following trade wind and current routes. If somebody wants to sail the Caribbean after crossing the Atlantic it is more than possible. 

From: Cliff Pereira <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, 12 October 2012, 11:16
Subject: Re: Any objection's to Ivan Van Sertima's Olmec Heads/African presence in Americas?

Hi Marika

Geography, Geography.

There is no direct current current from West Africa to Mexico - The current that is closest to the former empire of Mali - would be the one that comes off the Cape Verde Islands - this one end up passing by Puerto Rico and hitting Bermuda, before hitting the Gulf Stream - which does return across the Atlantic - be it here in the British Isles.

The second current actually swells up from much further south in the Bight of Benin and is the Slave Route or part of Atlantic Triangular system. this one hits Brazil, Barbados, Trinidad etc. before entering the Gulf of Mexico. No archaelogy linking the Arawak/Carib cultures of this patr of the Americas and Africa has so far been found.    

Regards
Cliff

> Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:49:27 +0100
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Any objection's to Ivan Van Sertima's Olmec Heads/African presence in Americas?
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> If you look in Basil Davidson's book which contains so many translations
> from Arabic histories, you will see that the Emperor of Mali (14
> century?))wanted to find out what lay over the ocean. He built a massive
> fleet. Eventually one ship returned. Captain told the Emperor that he had
> been afraid to sail on when he saw the rest of the fleet caught in a fast
> 'river in the ocean'. So he waited and waited for them to come back. They
> didn't.
> When I read that I looked in an atlas of currents - there's a strong current
> from the west coast of Africa to Mexico. But not one coming back. I would
> guess that even before this fleet, many fishermen would have been caught up
> by this 'river in the ocean' and ended up in Mexico. There are no currents
> coming back.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Black and Asian Studies Association [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
> Sent: 12 October 2012 02:03
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Any objection's to Ivan Van Sertima's Olmec Heads/African presence
> in Americas?
>
> Hello, I want to underscore a presentation by making point of African
> presence in the Americas pre-Columbus using Ivan Van Sertima's They Came
> Before Columbus/Olmec Heads position
>
> I know he has his detractors - anyone got any cogent argument against Van
> Sertimas's positing Africans in the Americas based on Olmec Heads, etc?
>
> Kwaku
>
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