⁶There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy, and he put us aboard it. ⁷When we had sailed slowly for a good many days, and with difficulty had arrived off Cnidus, since the wind did not permit us to go farther, we sailed under the shelter of Crete, off Salmone; ⁸and with difficulty sailing past it we came to a place called Fair Havens, near which was the city of Lasea. ⁹When considerable time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul began to admonish them, ¹⁰and said to them, “Men, I perceive that the voyage will certainly be with damage and great loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” ¹¹But the centurion was more persuaded by the pilot and the captain of the ship than by what was being said by Paul. ¹²Because the harbor was not suitable for wintering, the majority reached a decision to put out to sea from there, if somehow they could reach Phoenix, a harbor of Crete, facing southwest and northwest, and spend the winter there. ¹³When a moderate south wind came up, supposing that they had attained their purpose, they weighed anchor and began sailing along Crete, close inshore.

The voyage to Rome was not easy; such was sea travel in the ancient world. Romans were more land-based but borrowed their shipbuilding from the peoples they had conquered. Thus we see the centurion finding passage on an Egyptian merchant ship heading from southern Asia Minor (from the port of Myra) to Rome. Though navigation then was advanced for the ancient world, the lack of modern tools like combustion engines made sailing dependent on the ocean currents, wind, and general weather conditions. This trip to Rome ran afoul of severely adverse sailing conditions. Even before this time, Paul had recorded the difficulties of sailing as part of the sacrifice he paid in preaching the gospel:

“Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.” (2 Cor. 11:25)

They stopped at Fair Havens on the island of Crete. There were believers there, the first of them having heard the gospel preached on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:10). But the churches there were not well organized at this time, as we can see from Paul’s letter to Titus (Titus 1:5).

Weather conditions degraded, and Paul brought his concerns to the centurion and crew members. The apostle was certainly not a passive traveler, but his objections were ignored. So they set sail for what would be an unexpected and treacherous turn of events.

Lord, I trust You even when others make decisions that seem unwise to me. In You do I rest.