Florinda sailed from New Orleans on July 6, 1849 with fourteen crew members to the Balize (now known as Pilottown) located at the mouth of the Mississippi River and awaited her captain, Harmon Jones. Florinda then made way first along the coastlines of the Gulf of Mexico to Cape Florida on Key Biscayne near what is today Miami, Florida. She then sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the Cape Verde Islands. On leaving Cape Verde, she then sailed to Brazil and then onwards around Cape Horn.