The designation “sea of Adria,” where the boat was said to be as it approached Malta, came to include the waters of the Mediterranean E of Sicily and W of Crete, and therefore, it could be said that Malta was bounded by this sea.​—Ac 27:27.

What is today called St. Paul’s Bay, situated on the NE side of Malta, could have been reached on a WNW course without previously touching any other part of the island of Malta. Perhaps when their trained ears heard breakers dashing against rocky Qawra (Koura) Head, which juts out into the Mediterranean from the eastern side of St. Paul’s Bay, the sailors began to suspect that they were approaching land.