Acts 27:7-20

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.