Through to the Med

*** Sorry about the double photos in the last post - a minor technical hitch (didn't know how to delete the first lot without killing the whole post!) 

Day 35 - 5 July - at sea
Thankfully the clocks went back another hour this morning, so we have pretty well recovered from our Dead Sea adventure.  We have just turned the corner from the Gulf of Aqaba back into the Red Sea heading to our Suez Canal anchorage in preparation for our transit at 5.00am tomorrow.  Vivian is still a little tired so skipped bridge, which for some reason was scheduled for 9.00 again.  On our way this morning we passed lots & lots of oil rigs close to the Egyptian coastline. The sky is still hazy, hot with full sun.

It is currently just after 4.00pm and we are slowly moving towards our anchorage outside Port Suez.  There are numerous other ships in the vicinity, some exiting the canal and heading south but most are like us and getting into position for our convoy to start tomorrow morning.  We expect to lead the northbound convoy unless there are any military vessels, which take precedence.  Freighters & container ships are next followed by oil tankers with gas tankers bringing up the rear (they make the biggest bang apparently). 

The convoy assembling at Suez

Day 36 - 6 July - Suez Canal transit 
Woke at 5.00am as I could feel the ship moving slightly.  We were just entering the canal at the port of Suez.  Very hazy & a lot cooler than the last couple of days.  We have a tugboat following us and through the fug I am pretty sure that there are 2 warships - the first looks like an aircraft carrier, the other is a French frigate (according to Hutch). 

The first part of the canal (port side) is very lush with lots of cropping - in addition to the usual military installations.  They have a "Trump" Wall running the entire length of the canal so far.  Much of the infrastructure appears to be new. By 6.30 we have reached the beginning of the Great Bitter Lake, where the convoy used to congregate waiting for the southbound convoy to come through.  However the next part of the canal has now been double-laned so we'll sail through the new cut. 

The temperature is only 25° and I suspect that the sea temperature is higher resulting in an extensive mist/cloud cover, making visibilty poor.  As the day wore on the mist etc. lifted and the temperature rose to a pleasant 32°.  Yes, we sailed in the new eastern canal, which opened just under 3 years ago.  There is still plenty of infrastructure work to be done.  The downside is that we do not get to see the developed area which we used to as there are now large sand dunes (dredgings) on both sides of the canal.

There was one surprise though.  The Sinai side has always been, well, just desert but not too far north of the Great Bitter Lake a whole new town is being constructed, with 45,000 apartments being built and also a new resort is to be built - amazing!  Apart from that bit of excitement on starboard side, we are pleased to have our balcony on the port side, as this is currently also the shady side and we can see what there is to see at our leisure. 

The last of the southbound convoy has passed by, so we have the canal to ourselves (well at least our convoy of 30+ ships) and at 11.30 we exited the new canal and are sailing in the original for the final 2-3 hours.  We have not seen this part of the canal leading up to Port Said as on both previous voyages have gone through this area at night.  We have just sailed by a smallish town bordering the canal right on midday prayer time.  There must be a mosque every 50 metres as the sounds ringing out were continuous and *very* loud. 

Decided to have a quick pizza for lunch so that we'd be back in the cabin in time see our exit into the Mediterranean.   We actually didn't need to rush as our final exit was not until 2.30.  Once again we used the starboard chanel, rather than passing through Port Said itself.  After we'd disembarked the pilot it was full steam ahead towards Cephalonia, where we are due around midday Sunday.

It was interesting that this time we had no discernable military presence, whereas we have previously had helicopters and the guardposts have been manned every 500 metres.  This time, nothing - apart from a mysterious black van which followed us along the waterfront for all of the last 3 hours.  One last comment - the Suez Canal Authority have established a brand new headquarters-on an island between the two canals!   Everyone has to take a ferry to work....

Just north of Suez

Port side 

Sinai side of new canal

Looking west to the "old" canal

The end of the new cut

Northern end of canal

Agriculture abounds

The End

Beachside at Port Said

Day 37 - 7 July - at sea
Princess giveth, and Princess takest away.    Too good to be true, but Princess took back one of those hours last night, and to add insult to injury, bridge is at 9.00 *again*, so a pretty early start to the day.  As previously mentioned, today is our last sea day and just to rub it in we also have another Formal tonight. 

It has actually turned into a brilliant Mediterranean day, clear skies & a deep blue sea - even spotted some small dolphins or porpoises alongside.  There was still some sand on our deck overnight from the desert winds.  Today we are basically sailing west, past Egypt & now Libya but will set a more norwesterly course after we pass by Crete this evening..  Hopefully from here on we will have left the sandy air behind (& many of those annoying coughs). 

In his midday announcement, the Commodore told us that the cost of our transit through the Suez yesterday was just under half a million US dollars!