At 9 am this morning we left Loryma Bay to continue our journey west. Tomorrow or after tomorrow we plan to arrive in Knidos, another port where Paul the Apostle went on shore. We are travelling at about the same speed as he did. Myra and Knidos are only 121 nautical miles apart. Saint Paul’s grain ship from Alexandria took “many days and arrived with difficulty off Knidos, the wind not permitting us to proceed, we sailed under the shelter of Crete off Salmone.” (ACTS 27:2).
Loryma Bay - the Dragonfly, our Sailboat, is the fourth Ship from below
Under normal circumstances, the 121 miles distance can be comfortably covered in two days. In our case, we take longer because we explore ancient towns and make breaks for swimming. For Saint Paul, the slow speed was the result of headwinds he encountered. By the time his ship reached Knidos, the westerlies had set in and overwhelmed the local thermal winds.
Saint Paul's Journey to Rome must have started in late Summer
In Roman times, the sailing season ended around mid-September. Sailing beyond that date was considered dangerous. Sailing beyond 11 November, eight weeks later, was considered impossible – navy vessels with oars excepted of course.
Model of an Alexandrian Grain Ship heading for Rome
We do not know exactly when Saint Paul and his guarding Centurion Julius left Caesarea on a local ship that brought him to Myra. It must have been during late summer. The Roman governor had kept him under house arrest for two years. Saint Paul arrived in May 58 AD. The ship’s helmsman was certainly not in a rush. He stopped in Sidon for trading and Saint Paul was allowed to visit his friends and followers in town. Then they had to switch boat in Myra. Finding a ship bound for Rome in Myra so late in the season must have taken a few days. I thus guess that the Alexandrian grain ship which they eventually took arrived in Knidos around early October.
Granary in Andriake, Myra's Harbor - today the Lycian Museum
The wind did not allow them to sail straight west as ships bound to Rome did during the sailing season. They were forced to head south instead and take the more dangerous passage via Crete. Had they been earlier, they could have sailed with the wind blowing from the Aegean, hopping from Greek island to Greek island until they reached the Peloponnese. But why they did not stay for the winter in Knidos? It was the perfect harbor for sitting out the winter, had many storage facilities for the ship's cargo and could accommodate the 246 passengers on Saint Paul's boat for a few months. That cargo ships were late was not something new. It must have happened all the time. For that reason the Roman Emperors built graneries along the main sailing routes.
Maybe the answer can be found in ACTS 27:2 itself "and arrived with difficulty off Knidos…” Until today, I read this section as if the ship had stopped in Knidos. But maybe the winds did not allow them to enter the harbor. They were a 300 ton cargo freighter which was clumsy and not easy to handle. Did they have to continue straight south towards Crete? We may find out more tomorrow or definitely next year when we travel from Rhodes to Crete.
We did not trade in Wheat or Asian Luxury Goods but bought
Towels instead from a local Merchant we met in 2018 already
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