It is not clear why Paul and his companions had to change ships in Patara. Perhaps the vessel on which they had been sailing was a smaller vessel used to sail close to the coast, and they needed a larger vessel to make the open sea journey from Patara to Tyre. Was going actually translates a present participle in Greek, but it has a future significance. Went aboard and sailed away are two technical terms for sailing; the second of these, sailed away, is the same word translated left in verse 1.

In attempting to deal with these relatively technical nautical terms a translator is usually either faced with a superabundance of terms, if he is translating into a language of seafaring people, or he finds that there are relatively few terms which correspond to the Greek expressions. Therefore he is required to use in almost all instances general expressions such as “went,” “went by boat,” or “traveled on a ship.” In some languages one can simply use “left … went over the water and arrived at….” Of course, in languages where technical nautical terms are well known by all the people, these can certainly be employed; but if such terms are only known by a relatively few persons in a society, more general expression should be used.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .