Two weeks, or 324 hours, have passed since Cauda. If the ship has been driven across the Adriatic Sea at a rate of one and one-half knots, it has covered 482 nautical miles. On a course of a very shallow curve, the ship would find itself at Malta, 474 nautical miles from Crete (Haenchen 1971:705; Smith 1978:124-28). About midnight, whether from the waves' change of motion into a running swell or the sound of surf crashing against Point Koura, a quarter of a mile away, the sailors sensed they were approaching land. Luke actually speaks from the point of view of the seafarers, who see the boat as stationary, and says, "The land was approaching."

The sailors test their sense that land is near by casting a leadline over board to take depth soundings. The "lead had a hollow on the underside which, filled with tallow or grease, brought up samples of the bottom" (Casson 1971:246; Herodotus History 2.5). Their unit of measure is "fathom," the distance between fingertips when the arms are extended—approximately six feet (E. F. Harrison 1986:420). Probably no more than thirty minutes later (Smith 1978:130-31), a second sounding finds that the sea floor is thirty feet closer.

The sailors take immediate action to halt the ship's drift toward a coast that they cannot make out in the dark. They hurl four anchors from the ship's stern, probably by casting a cable with two anchors attached from each side of the stern. This would not only halt the ship's progress but also position its bow facing the shore to prevent the waves from making damaging broadside blows.

The vessel is now poised for its approach at daybreak. The sailors have done all they know to do. Now all that is left is to keep on wishing for daylight (NIV prayed for daylight). Though God is sovereign, human beings still have responsibility. These sailors met theirs, and we must meet ours, especially in adverse circumstances that can tempt us to despairing passivity.

So important is the crew to the survival of all that when some seek to escape, under the pretext of using the dinghy to position anchors from the bow, Paul draws this to the attention of the centurion and his men: Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved. Luke may be playing on his leitmotif of salvation here, speaking of physical rescue but intending to point beyond it (compare Acts 4:9, 12; 16:30-31). The word of promise is "God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you" (27:24). If the sailors jump ship, this promise cannot be fulfilled for them or for the passengers.

The assurance of physical salvation through belief in the divine message to Paul and the commitment to remain with him is an acted parable of the essentials of spiritual salvation: believing the gospel message and solidarity with the gospel messenger (14:3-4; 16:14-15, 32-34; 17:2-4, 34; 18:8). Impulsively or wisely, the soldiers cut the ropes so that the dinghy falls away. The passengers' and crew's fate will now be the same.