Wake up early and we are up and about as we start our progress through the Suez Canal. It is 23 degrees with hazy skies. We are third in line of a total convoy of 38 ships. There is quite a distance between ships. The length of the canal is 193 kms. The canal is fairly wide about 200 metres but when we hit the great bitter lake it is huge, with a maximum width of 13 kms.. We are lucky as the port side has much more interesting scenery than the starboard side. Although we miss a landmark on the starboard side where there is a sign to depict where the Ever Green blocked the canal in 2021. We are looking forward to when we reach the lochs only we realise there are no lochs on the Suez Canal!
As we sail further into the great bitter lake we pass a number of cargo ships on our port side. These are waiting until our convoy passes and then they will sail towards Suez . On the starboard side there are also ships which will join our convoy.
Once we pass through the lake the canal divides into two separate canals. One going towards Suez and the other towards Port Said. This new canal is 35 kms long and took just on 12 months to construct. It was completed in 2015. With the new canal ships can now travel both ways between Port Said and the Great Bitter Lake. This has cut the transit time through the Suez Canal from 18 to 11 hours!
The scenery is quite a contrast. At the start there were towns along our side of the canal with greenery and palm trees. Once we got through the lake it became more stark. On each side of the canal we are sailing through there is just mud, rock and sand that is probably the remains of the dredging. All along the canal though are fishermen in small rowing skiffs dropping and pulling up nets. Haven’t seen much fish bought on board though.
The temperature has reached 31 and it is hot in the sun, but ok in the shade. We pass under the friendship bridge which was financed by Japan. Just after we pass the bridge there is a landmark in relation to the six day war with Israel and there are a couple of tanks and a statue there.
We eventually reach Port Said and enter the Mediterranean around 3.15. We sit on the balcony and have a champagne from yesterday’s breakfast. It is not Mumm. So we have to open a bottle of wine to get rid of the taste! We are now in the Mediterranean. Ann is happy to be back in Europe.
Glad you didn’t get stuck ! Hopefully it will be a little cooler now ? - Kate
ReplyDelete