In some languages one does not speak of “a day coming.” One can, however, say “it became light” or “the sun was almost up.”

The sailors makes explicit the Greek pronominal subject “they.” It is not surprising that the sailors did not recognize the coast, for the storm had carried them away from their usual sailing route.

Most translators understand the Greek word to mean bay, though some understand it in the sense of “a creek” (King James Version, Moffatt). The only way the sailors felt it would be possible to save the ship would be to run the ship aground there, and so that is what they tried.

If possible may be related to the process of running the ship aground by translating “decided that they would try to run the ship aground.”

Run the ship aground is rendered in some languages as “cause the ship to reach the land,” “cause the ship to touch the land underneath the water,” or “cause the ship to go against the ground under the water.”

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 .