Suez Canal – scenic cruising - March 30

The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level canal running north to south across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt and linking the Red Sea with the Mediterranean. It was built from 1854 to 1869 by de Lesseps with French and Egyptian capital and was nationalized in 1956 by the Egyptians. It’s 101 miles long.

The canal separates the African continent from Asia, and it provides the shortest maritime route between Europe and the lands lying around the Indian and western Pacific oceans. It is one of the world's most heavily used shipping lanes.

The canal is single lane with passing places in Ballah By-Pass and in the Great Bitter Lake. There are some areas where it is now 2 lane traffic and at one point it splits and we took the right fork while the left fork went closer to Port Said. A railway on the west bank runs parallel to the canal for its entire length.

A lot has changed with the canal since we were here 4 years ago. It was very interesting to see the growth and construction going on. 

Captain JP came on and said we had the honor of being in the number 1 spot in the convoy through the Canal. While it was an “honor” to be number one, it meant we started the transit in the dark. Greg got up and put the Go Pro out on the balcony around 4:30. I didn’t get up too early, but with the drapes open I could see the banks of the canal as we passed by. It was also cold out. So, I put on Jeans and a Sweater and went out on deck after breakfast to watch the canal go by. There were a lot of guard towers all manned and we saw many weapons, military vehicles, fishing boats, ferries take passengers/cars across to the other side and just a lot of activity with construction. 

I think there were around 30 ships in the convoy and we were the only passenger ship.  We passed Little Bitter Lake, Great Bitter Lake, Deversoir Bypass, Jabal Mary Am War Memorial, Lake Timsah and Ismaillia, Suez War Memorial, El Ferdan Railway Bridge (the longest swing span bridge in the world), Al Ballah By-pass, Suez Canal Bridge (also known as Egyptian-Japanese Friendship Bridge) and El Qantara Strait. Part way we exchanged captains and then after Port Said the captain got off. By 2:45 we had left the Canal and we are now in the Mediterranean Sea on our way to Rhodes, Greece.

 Holland America's Amsterdam behind us as we transit the canal

 see the guys face in the  hole?

We did take a break for lunch in the “slow” part before watching us pass under the Friendship Bridge.

 these are made for the pigeons so they don't nest in places they shouldn't

 long line of vehicles waiting to cross

After we finished the transit it was time for Bingo which was in the afternoon today to work it around the canal viewing. I finally broke my losing streak and won $70.00. Bringing our collective total to $2,365.00 

Then, there was a passenger talent show which we stayed to watch since our Bingo Buddy Leonard was doing his card tricks. Only 3 people volunteered to perform. Besides Leonard there was a guy who sang and a bagpipe player. Leonard was really good!

The show tonight was a repeat of a production show called Can’t Stop the Music. It was a good show, but we saw it just a couple of weeks ago. We were told that this new troupe would have 18 new shows. One of the male dancers was injured in the last show they did. 

We lose an hour of sleep tonight to match the time in Rhodes. UGH. Much nicer to gain time than lose it, but sometimes it has to be done.

We have one more Sea Day to enjoy before our 8 ports in a row……