Pauls Ship Takes Refuge at Fair Havens on Crete

After leaving Myra of Lycia aboard an Alexandrian grain ship bound for Italy, Paul and his fellow prisoners struggled west against contrary winds for many days, slowly working their way around the south coast of Crete and arriving at Fair Havens near the city of Lasea (Acts 27:7-12). By then the sailing season was nearly over — Luke notes that "much time had passed and the voyage was already dangerous because even the Fast was already over" (a reference to the Day of Atonement, mid-October). Paul, who had survived three previous shipwrecks (2 Corinthians 11:25), warned the centurion Julius and the ship's captain: "Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives." The ship's pilot and owner disagreed, judging Fair Havens unsuitable for wintering, and the majority decided to press west forty miles to Phoenix-crete, a better-sheltered port. When a gentle south wind began to blow, they weighed anchor and hugged the Cretan shore — but a violent northeast wind called the Euraquilo soon swept down from the mountains and drove the ship out to sea, beginning the fourteen-day storm that ended in shipwreck on Malta (Acts 27:13-44).

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