Acts 27:4-30

⁴Then the ship left Sidon, but the winds were blowing against us (exc), so the ship went along the north side of Cyprus Island, the side that is sheltered from the wind.

⁵After that, we crossed over the sea close to the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia provinces. The ship arrived at Myra city, which is in Lycia province. We got off the ship there.

⁶In Myra, people told Julius that a ship was there that had come from Alexandria city and would soon sail to Italy. So he arranged for us to get on that ship, and we left.

⁷We sailed slowly for several days and finally arrived close to the coast of Asia province, near Cnidus town. After that, the wind was very strong and did not allow the ship to move straight ahead westward. So instead, we sailed southward along the side of Crete Island that is sheltered from the wind, and we passed near Cape Salmone.

⁸The wind was still strong, and it prevented the ship from moving ahead fast. So we moved slowly along the coast of Crete, and we arrived at a harbor that was called Fair Havens, near Lasea town.

⁹Much time had passed, so it would have been dangerous if we (exc) had traveled farther by ship because after that time of the year MTY the sea often became very stormy. So Paul said to the men on the ship,

¹⁰“Men, I perceive that if we(inc) travel by ship now, it will be disastrous for us. A storm may destroy the ship and the cargo, and possibly we will drown.”

¹¹But the officer did not listen to what Paul said. Instead, he decided to do what the pilot of the ship and the owner of the ship advised.

¹²The harbor where the ship had stopped was not a good place to remain during the winter when the weather frequently becomes stormy. So most of the people on the ship decided that we(exc) should leave there, because they hoped that we could stay at Phoenix port during the winter, if we could possibly arrive there. That harbor was open to the sea in two directions, but the strong winds did not blow there.

¹³Then a gentle wind began to blow from the south, and the crew members thought that they could travel as they had decided to do. So they lifted the anchor up out of the sea, and the ship sailed westward along the southern shore of Crete Island.

¹⁴But after a while, a wind that was very strong blew across the island from the north side and hit the ship. That wind was called { People called that wind} “the Northeast Wind.”

¹⁵It blew strongly against the front of the ship. The result was that we could not keep going in the direction in which we had been going. So the sailors let the wind move the ship in the direction that the wind was blowing.

¹⁶The ship then passed a small island named Cauda. We passed along the side of the island that sheltered the ship from the wind. Then while the ship was moving along, the sailors lifted the lifeboat up out of the water and tied it on the deck. But the strong wind made it difficult even to do that.

¹⁷After the sailors hoisted/lifted the lifeboat onto the ship, they tied ropes around the ship's hull to strengthen the ship. The sailors were afraid that, because the wind was pushing the ship, it might run onto the sandbanks off the coast of Libya to the south and get stuck there. So they lowered the largest sail so that the ship would move slower. Even so, the wind continued to move the ship along. The wind and the waves continued to toss the ship about roughly, so on the next day the sailors began to throw overboard the things that the ship was carrying.

¹⁹On the third day after the stormy wind had begun to blow, the sailors/we MTY threw overboard most of the sails, ropes, and poles, in order to make the ship lighter.

²⁰The wind continued to blow very strongly, and the sky was full of dark clouds day and night. We could not see the sun or the stars for many days, so we could not determine where we were. And the wind continued to blow violently. So we (exc) finally thought that we would drown in the sea.

²¹None of us on the ship had eaten for many days. Then one day, Paul stood up in front of us and said, “ Friends, you should have listened to me when I said that we (inc) should not sail from Crete. Then we would have been safe, and the ship and its cargo would be in good condition LIT.

²²But now, I urge you, do not be afraid, because none of us will die. The storm will destroy the ship but not us.

²³I know this, because last night God, the one to whom I belong and whom I serve, sent an angel who came and stood by me.

²⁴The angel said to me, ‘Paul, do not be afraid! You (sg) must go to Rome and stand before the Emperor there so that he can judge you. I want you to know that God has made it clear to me that all those who are traveling by ship with you will also survive.’

²⁵So cheer up, my friends, because I believe that God will make this happen, exactly as the angel told me.

²⁶However, the ship will crash on some island, and we (inc) will go ashore there.”

²⁷On the fourteenth night after the storm had begun, the ship was still being blown {the wind was still blowing the ship} across the Adriatic sea. About midnight, the sailors sensed that the ship was getting close to land.

²⁸So they lowered a weight on a rope to measure how deep the water was. When they pulled the rope up again, they measured it and saw that the water was ◄120 ft./37 meters► deep. They went a little farther and lowered the rope again. That time, they saw that the water was only about ◄90 ft./28 meters► deep.

²⁹They were afraid that the ship might go onto some rocks, so they threw out four anchors from the ship's stern/back and continued to wish/pray that it would soon be dawn so that they could see where the ship was going.

³⁰Some of the sailors were planning to escape from the ship, so they lowered the lifeboat into the sea. In order that no one would know what they planned to do, they pretended that they wanted to lower some anchors from the ship's front/bow.