Acts 27:12-20

12Since the harbor was not a good place to spend the winter, most of the men decided to sail from there. They hoped to reach the city of Phoenix somehow and spend the winter there. (Phoenix is a harbor that faces the southwest and northwest winds and is located on the island of Crete.)

13When a gentle breeze began to blow from the south, the men thought their plan would work. They raised the anchor and sailed close to the shore of Crete.

14Soon a powerful wind (called a northeaster) blew from the island.

15The wind carried the ship away, and we couldn’t sail against the wind. We couldn’t do anything, so we were carried along by the wind.

16As we drifted to the sheltered side of a small island called Cauda, we barely got control of the ship’s lifeboat.

17The men pulled it up on deck. Then they passed ropes under the ship to reinforce it. Fearing that they would hit the large sandbank off the shores of Libya, they lowered the sail and were carried along by the wind.

18We continued to be tossed so violently by the storm that the next day the men began to throw the cargo overboard.

19On the third day they threw the ship’s equipment overboard.

20For a number of days we couldn’t see the sun or the stars. The storm wouldn’t let up. It was so severe that we finally began to lose any hope of coming out of it alive.