The Mystery of the Wind Witch

[Knight and Dayne]

Been doing some research on the influence of the Free Cities on the main action of the story and I noticed an interesting inconsistency. When Ned thinks about how he'll get Sansa and Arya out of harms way, he recalls:

AGoT Eddard XII

Vayon Poole had arranged for Sansa and Arya to sail on the Wind Witch out of Braavos, three days hence.

But later, when Arya is in the wind,

AGoT Arya V

She grabbed a passing longshoreman by the sleeve. “Please,” she said, “what ship is this?”
“She’s the Wind Witch, out of Myr,” the man said.

There are easy explanations:

[1] Eddard was pain- and drug- addled and misremembered,

[2] The longshoreman was mistaken,

[3] It's a different Wind Witch.

But I think there are other possibilities. Suppose Ned was misled about the home port of the ship. He was told it was Braavosi but it was truly from Myr. What could that mean?

[Swordofmorning]

 

IMO, it is one of the 3 things you listed or.....well George made a mistake   

 

[A bowl of brown]

A combination. I think the wind witch that ned planned to use was out if braavos and had already sailed when arya asked. But cersei new the name of the ship they meant to sail on and so laid a trap hoping to catch arya and told another ship to say it was the wind witch but couldnt find a ship with purple sails and so hoped arya wouldnt know where the original ship hailed from.

[Knight and Dayne]

A combination. I think the wind witch that ned planned to use was out if braavos and had already sailed when arya asked. But cersei new the name of the ship they meant to sail on and so laid a trap hoping to catch arya and told another ship to say it was the wind witch but couldnt find a ship with purple sails and so hoped arya wouldnt know where the original ship hailed from.

I like this theory. It makes a lot of sense for Ned to take a ship out of Braavos home with his family. Braavos is north. A Myrish ship heading north isn't impossible, but is certainly less likely.

So why Myr?

[Lost Melnibonean]

Been doing some research on the influence of the Free Cities on the main action of the story and I noticed an interesting inconsistency. When Ned thinks about how he'll get Sansa and Arya out of harms way, he recalls:

But later, when Arya is in the wind,

There are easy explanations:

[1] Eddard was pain- and drug- addled and misremembered,

[2] The longshoreman was mistaken,

[3] It's a different Wind Witch.

But I think there are other possibilities. Suppose Ned was misled about the home port of the ship. He was told it was Braavosi but it was truly from Myr. What could that mean?

Perhaps it was another hint to the reader that the person ts lking to Arya was a fraud? 

[The Commentator]

George made a mistake.

[Knight and Dayne]

A bit confused why people assume GRRM made a mistake here. He's joked about getting details crossed before (the transsexual horse, Jeyne Westerling's figure), but they were minor and crossed books, not within a few chapters of one another. 

[Alaynsa Starne]

I wonder if in his original draft Braavos actually existed. Because Dany's House with the Red Door was initially supposed to be in Tyrosh, but GRRM later switched it to Braavos. Is it possible that Braavos was a later conception and some details got muddled? 

[bemused]

The Braavosi Wind Witch was sailing in three days time from when Ned told the girls. Sansa told Cersei, but Sansa may not have remembered more than the name.. (Cersei could have found that out anyway, in the interim).

This won't be George's mistake.. it's clear the ship is using a false name and is there as a trap.