The descriptions of the “furious wind” not only provide an explanation of how the vessels traveled, it underscores the divine assistance of the journey. Jehovah is the God of the earth and the elements, and particularly the seas. God had said as much in Ether 2:24: “for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth.”
This is an ancient connection. In Robert Alter’s translation of Genesis 1:1, it says “When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering over the waters, God said. …” The power of the wind was used as a metaphor for God’s Spirit, a practice that continued in the New Testament. Therefore, when there is a wind propelling the vessels, we are to understand that it was God who drove them to their promised land.