Came to where we could see apparently is a technical term for sighting land (see New English Bible “came in sight of”; and Phillips, Jerusalem Bible “after sighting”). Sailed south of it is literally “leaving it on our left,” but geographically what is meant is that the ship sailed south of Cyprus. Some translators have rendered this as a technical term used in sailing (see Jerusalem Bible and New English Bible “leaving it to port” and Barclay “left it on our port beam”), but since these terms are not easily understood by most readers, it is usually more advisable to translate as the Good News Translation has done.

All commentators agree that the past tense used by Luke (literally “was unloading”) must be understood with a future reference; was going to unload (see Revised Standard Version and Jerusalem Bible “was to unload”). In some languages it is not possible to say the ship was going to unload its cargo. Rather, one must say that “men were going to unload the ship,” “men were going to carry from the ship what was on it,” or “… what was being transported in it.”

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 .