According to the story Kolaios was taking cargo to Egypt. As the ship sailed along the coast of Asia Minor it was engulfed in a storm which carried the vessel 1000 kilometres off course. The exhausted crew found no rest until the ship washed up on the shores of Platea, an island off Libya (today Bomba).
The crew was able to repair the damages and replenish supplies, but when Kolaios set sail for Egypt, another great storm arose. The helpless Greeks were driven westward, past Malta, Sicily, and Sardinia. The crew was terrified. Even under the best conditions, ships of this era rarely ventured onto the high seas. Merchants and warbands alike stayed within visual range of the coast or hopped from island to island, intent on spending each night on land.
Fortune smiled on Kolaios and his crew. They were carried through the Pillars of Hercules - the modern-day Straits of Gibraltar - without losing a single man. When the storm finally died
