Acts 27:20-32

²⁰The wind kept blowing really hard, and the sky was full of dark clouds all day and all night. We couldn’t see the sun or the stars for a long time, so we didn’t know where we were. And the wind and the waves kept throwing us about, and after some time we thought we were going to drown in the sea.

²¹None of us on the ship wanted to eat any food. We didn’t eat anything for a long time. Then one day, Paul stood up in front of us and said, “Listen, men, you didn’t listen to me in Crete but you sailed out of that little harbour. So now you are in trouble, and you lost all the things this ship was carrying.

²²But listen. Don’t be frightened. I’m telling you that none of us will die. But the wind and waves will wreck this ship.

²³You see, I work for God, and last night he sent one of his angel messengers to me. He came and stood beside me,

²⁴and he said, ‘Paul, don’t be frightened. You have to go to Rome and stand in front of the big boss called Caesar. And God will be good to all the others, too, that are with you on this ship. None of them will die.’

²⁵Listen friends, I believe that God will help us, just like that angel told me.

²⁶But the ship will crash on to an island, and we will all go ashore there.”

²⁷We were in that storm for 2 weeks. The wind was still blowing the ship across the water called the Adriatic Sea. Then, about the middle of the night, the sailors thought the ship was getting close to land.

²⁸So they got a rope with a stone on the end of it and dropped it into the water to find out how deep it was. That stone went down 37 meters into the water, so they knew the water was 37 metres deep. We went a little further and then they threw the stone out again. This time it only went down 28 metres, so they knew the water was not so deep there.

²⁹In that way they knew for sure that the ship was getting close to land. Then they got frightened. They thought the ship might smash on to some rocks, so they threw out 4 anchors on ropes from the back, to stop the ship, and they hoped for daylight to come so they could see the land.

³⁰The sailors wanted to leave the ship in the little boat, so they lied to everyone, they said, “We are going to drop some anchors from the front of the ship.” Then they started to lower the little boat into the sea.

³¹But Paul told the soldiers, and their boss, “If these sailors don’t stay on the ship, you will all drown.”

³²So the soldiers cut the ropes of the little boat and let it fall down into the water and go away.