Transiting the Suez Canal

Pirate talk

Uros, one of our favorite photogs is from Serbia. There was a discussion about the ship being taken over by pirates and someone calling the Serbian embassy to ask for a ransom to release the two Serbians  for theirs any days.

Pirate Party

Turns out it was a Hawaiian themed party and I didn’t get the memo. There weren’t many people to start but gradually more and more came and there were the looky loose on the deck above watching it all from above. I left after about 40 min. and I heard it got pretty lively after Ileft. No details to be shared. Ha.

What a night!

racket around 2:30 am! We had been at anchor awaiting our turn to transit the canal and they began the ship’s preparations with lots of racket like the anchor chains perpetually scraping the sides as they were raised. Icould see the ship turning to face the entrance to the canal and still all those lights of other ships in the distance. I did get a few winks at some point but all of us are exhausted as the noise was more than I recall at any other port. We know we are in the canal but not much more when daylight arrives and then various speakers give us more details as we continue along.

We are #1!

How lucky can we be? Our ship led the convoy of 30 ships through the canal at 8 knots per hour, the mandated speed limit there. We were the only passenger ship; others were tankers, car transit, cargo, one research vessel: Polaris something (long way from cold weather I’d say).

Well being #1 in the convoy and being on the front of the ship was the best of all worlds.

Let me digress a minute and tell you that about 18 mos ago, the canal added a second lane for much of the transit. So near the middle, north and southbound use separate lanes separate by a sand dune berm. It is so sensible and a great boon to transit. The ones from the north had to leave much earlier than we did but the only vessels in our lane, other than those behind us (smug smile here) were small fishing vessels, faluccas (local craft that use a long triangular sail) and such. We could see people occasionally along the sides but one wonders how folks survive out here. Lots of incredible construction of new apartments, assorted buildings of unknown use, much dredging of canal and connecting waterways: you name it almost.

We invited randy and Frances to join us in the cabin and we ordered breakfast in as we went along. It is cool by now and you definitely need good jackets. The wind started out very mild but picked up as we got farther along on our journey. Mercifully the sun was never directly ahead of us still our faces feel windburned and sunburned.

We saw an angel statue and a monument on each side of our canal to the Suez and it’s renovations. One was quite pretty and while we couldn’t figure it out from a distance, I got some photos and it turns out to be a lovely, Egyptian themed, monument to the history of the canal.  There were lots of fisherman along the way. We wondered what kind of fish they could be capturing. Many white birds in large flocks joined us periodically and the captain at one point warned us about dive bombers from them.

We ordered lunch in and ate it on the balcony as we continued our transit. So tourist pamphlet perfect. No champagne though: just iced tea and cokes.

We finished the transit a little after 4 and with satisfaction but some disappointment that it is over, got back into our routine.

Trivia

No threat here. Supper we caught up with everybody.

Show tonight

Was a repeat but these folks are so good the house was packed. There are other activities around the ship but we are all still pooped so it will be an early night for most if for no other reason than:

We have to give one hour back???!!! So less sleep? Well anyway we’ll get it back soon enough.

We are at sea tomorrow: Yeah! And then we begin a marathon of a new port each day between the Dalmation coast, Greece, and Italy before we reach Venice in a few days.