Acts 27:27-28

The ancient name of the central part of the Mediterranean Sea was the Adriatic or Hadriatic Sea. People referred to what we now call the Adriatic Sea as the Gulf of Adria or Hadria or as the Ionian Sea. [Note: Bruce, Commentary on . . ., p. 515; Longenecker, p. 561.] The winds and currents had carried Paul’s ship in a northwesterly direction from the south-central Mediterranean. The sailors may have smelled the land, which sailors can do, or they may have heard the waves breaking on shore.

"Took soundings" is literally "hearing the land" in Greek. To determine the depth of the water the sailors tied a weight to a line and threw it overboard. The depth to which it sank indicated the depth of the water. A fathom is 6 feet, so these depths were 120 and 90 feet.