[Verginius Rufus]

Cauda is south of the western part of Crete. They were tossed about for 14 days without seeing the sun or stars so who knows where they had been driven.

The inhabitants of the island are referred to as barbarians (28.2: barbaroi). If this was Malta, I think they would have been Punic-speakers, so speaking a language similar to Hebrew--would Luke have called that tongue "barbarian"?

Adria originally applied just to the northern part of the Adriatic but the use was later extended. I was told once that there was no evidence for it being applied as early as this to the sea around Malta, but I haven't investigated it on my own, or the significance of the "Typhonikos wind called Eurakylon" (called Euroaquilo in the Vulgate).

Admittedly on general grounds Malta looks more likely, but I don't think it is definitely settled; is there any fossil evidence that poisonous snakes were ever on the island?

[John1140]

Please remember, they had been prevented by the wind from going north toward Mljet, which is why they ended up at Fairhaven Crete to begin with. Therefore, Fairhaven Crete becomes the true starting point for any search pattern (point 1). They then are blown to the lee side of Cauda (lee from a ENE wind direction), which becomes point 2 in the search pattern. The text reveals to us the ship passed Cauda during the first day. We know this because in v.18 the term “the next day” is used. Further in v.19 the term “the third day” is used there. Therefore they had to have reached the brief safety of Cauda on that first day. This conclusion further makes sense because it is only about 39 miles to the backside of Cauda (Google Earth).

Our search pattern now has the first two points Fairhaven and Cauda, and the third point is the sandbars of Syrtis, (v.17), which is their main fear. It is universal, when reading shipwreck accounts, the sequence of activities on a ship in danger always begins with and revolves around the greatest danger. In this case, the sandbars, which lie basically due west and south, the direction they are being driven and the ship is out of control. They do not give us a daily update as to their position, but they tell us clearly the first two points and what they fear the third point to be.
Yes Luke called the islanders Barbarians, as was the customs of a Greek, especially if they were not speaking Greek. However, what he called people, does not really alter the path of the wind.
The two terms you mention; Euraquilo and Euroclydon, are actually, are wind direction, and probably more accurate than is the term Northeaster. They mean a wind direction of East-North-East (ENE)direction, where the NIV translation means northeaster, which is a description of direction and a storm.

To my knowledge there has been neither Fossil (nor more recent) evidence of snakes on the island of Malta to date.