Suez Canal

We arrived at the entrance to the Suez Canal at the appointed hour of 10 am only to be told that our time had been changed to 3. They are dredging the lake in the middle of the canal where ships usually pass each other headed in different directions. For this reason they were taking 30 ships at a time thru one way. All we could do was wait our turn. We were to be number 29 with the Pacific Princess, also on a world cruise, bringing up the back at number 30. The Capt said cruise ships are usually given priority, not this time. So unfortunately a large portion of the passing would be after dark. 

Our time finally came right around 3. There are no locks on this canal, so we just kept moving along. The city of Suez was on the south side, absolutely nothing but sand on the other. That was the Sinai peninsula. Looking at the vast expanse of nothing you had to wonder why there have been so many issues over possession, kind of like the Faulkland Islands! There were manned guard towers every few hundred feet to the south, a few on the north side as well. We saw the huge bricks they had along the shore which would be put into the canal to block it in case of an emergency. Suez was full of Palm trees and green. The other side was sand. We watched for a long time from the outside observation area on deck 6. There were a lot of people below us watching from the bow. It was interesting to look at everything but at about 6:00 lights started turning on and it got darker and darker. There wasn't much we could see by then except for the walls and guard towers and a lot of lights everywhere. We did, however, keep looking out once in a while just in case. At about 11:00 we took a last look from our balcony. We were just passing under a bridge. We wondered what was on the other side since we had only seen a lot of nothing, but didn't feel like going out of our cabin at that hour to check. 

The Capt reported that we left the canal around 3 am. It had taken 12 hours to pass thru. He also told us that to reach Ashdad, Israel we would only need to go 5 knots/hr. At that slow speed the stabilizers would not be affective so we were going to head out to sea then make a 90 degree turn into Ashdad going 10 knots. He is always thinking of the passengers comfort and for the benefit of those who get sea sick I am sure it was appreciated.