Suez to Port Said

Saturday, April 09, 2011 Suez to Port Said

We are traveling north and the summer heat of the tropics is gone.  I have never once gone in the pool on the ship although I intended to.  It occurs to me that I have left it too long.  Getting out of the pool on deck would be cold and drafty, and the water will no doubt get cooler each day.  Athens, Rome, Lisbon, Southampton.  The trip is almost over.

There is a lot of haze, some of it is air pollution and some is sand.  Visibility is reported at three miles.  I awake about two in the morning to a smoky smell which I hope is air pollution, but I cannot get back to sleep.  At five-thirty, I give up and leave the room.  The sky is lightening, but there is no visible sun for a long time.  The haze continues, and I take many bad pictures wondering what, if anything, will be visible.

The Suez is a sea-level canal with no locks making it easy to build, but it must be dredged constantly.  It is not the first canal in the area.  There have canals since the time of Cheops although not at all times.  From what I can figure out, northbound ships such as ours have priority although there are locations where ships can proceed in both directions such as the Great Bitter Lake so named because of its extreme saltiness.  By treaty the canal is open to all commercial and military shipping—no telling who or what we may meet here.  There are two bridges across it.  Our Statue of Liberty was originally designed for this area.

After days of hurrying as fast as possible to avoid pirates, we dawdle to the canal to get there at the proper time.  At three-thirty in the morning the travelers to the pyramids are disgorged for their fourteen hours of bus-riding and monument viewing.  We then have to wait to get in line.  We are eventually given the eleventh position behind ten container ships and immediately following a ship from China.  The ships will travel one mile apart.  We are promised a quiet day of viewing sand (starboard side) and fields and small towns (port side).  Since our cabin is on the portside, we have the better view.

 We start through the canal enjoying the views and the pace.  There are military viewing us everywhere.  Not a good place to jump ship and swim for shore. We enter Little Bitter Lake, than Great Bitter Lake being assured we will not be able to tell the difference. This will be a day of reading, eating, listening to lectures and maybe napping.  I am not a good napper.

The ship slows alongside an old formerly RAF air base, but we are not slowing for the base.  We are awaiting a southbound convoy.  The air is still cool, and the lake is as smooth as glass.  Once again we are reminded that a number of ships were stranded here during the ’67 war for eight years.  They had limited food and water at first, but they were able to work that out and to rotate crews every six months, but what duty!  Absolutely nothing to do except to maintain the ship.

The southbound convoy which left Port Said about one this morning now appears at roughly ten o’clock this morning for us.  We are in one of several areas where ships can pass in two directions although it looks rather confusing at the moment.  I don’t have to make sense of this.  We have two pilot boats, one on each side.  I presume they have to make sense of this, and our ship announces that we can look on the internet and see the authorities arrange the timing of the ships each night.  I have not tested this.

The western shore appears to be solidly packed with buildings.  The land no longer appears to be agricultural.  What do you suppose they do to make a living?