World Cruise Day 93/152 - Suez Canal - Port Said, Sinai sunrise, sail, sunny, Suez, sweet!

Cruise day: 93/152

Ports days: 38
Sea days: 55
Countries: 15
Continents: 4
Ports: 28

We arrived at the Suez Canal last night somewhere after 10PM.  Portions of the Suez Canal can only support one-way shipping traffic.  For that reason, the Suez Canal works interestingly.  One convoy of ships starts from the south in Suez at 3:30AM heading north and another starts from the north in Port Said at 4:00AM heading south.  Our Viking Star was the leader of today's southbound convoy.

I got up around 5:30AM so I could see today's sunrise over the Sanai Peninsula.  Around 5:50AM, I was treated to this.

Channel markers like this were visible 

There were power transmission towers and lines visible for a long way

Looking back from our balcony, I could see a tug following along - it turns out there were two, one on each side, and they stayed with us all day long

I decided to head back to bed for a while.  An hour or so later, the sunlight filtering past the curtains went dark/light/dark/light.  I wondered why.  Looking out, I found that we had just passed under the Suez Canal Bridge, so these are the only photos I was able to capture.  

Most of these photos will be facing east since that is the direction of our balcony

This oddball bridge-looking thing was coming up.  It was noisy too - some work was happening on it.

The workers seemed friendly and were waving at us

They were taking photos as we went by

As it turns out, this is the El Ferdan Railway Bridge near Ismailia, Egypt and it is the largest swing bridge in the world at about 1,100 feet.  At night, the bridge closes since there is no ship traffic, and trains use it. There is one on the other side as well that we couldn't see from our side.  They both swing together.

We passed this elevated guard tower - note the rifle mounted inside near the guard

Behind us, you could spot an enormous cargo ship through the haze - better photos coming

The Suez Canal requires local pilots to board for entry, transit, and departure.  They did a pilot swap with two pilots boarding and two departing the Star.  It is always cool to see these guys just hop from moving ship to moving ship like it is nothing.

Right about this same time, we passed a really tiny fishing boat with a man and a boy, pulling in a net.  He didn't see to notice that a 750-foot ship was passing by just a few feet away.

He also wasn't fazed by our following tug, nor the 1,300-foot cargo ship behind that!

With pilots transferred, the two pilot boats headed out

There are several cut-throughs between parts of the canal with two channels - this one was decorated with statues and signs

A ferry transporting across the canal between passing ships

Some terns were flying and fishing near that pass-through.

The Battle is Ismailia monument near Ismailia, Egypt is a concrete monument designed to look like the muzzle of an AK-47 with a bayonet to honor Egyptian casualties of the Battle of Ismailia

The ship following us in the north to south convoy

More guard shacks with armed guards - they seemed to be positioned about every half mile or so.

We also passed what appeared to be a military compound

We passed another fisherman with a friendly rower

We took advantage of the nice weather with temps in the 60s and bright sun to sit on the aquavit deck outside and play a little bridge with Kathy & Steve, our partners in bridge class, all while cruising through the Suez Canal - life doesn't get much better than this

We also did break away and attend trivia at noon.  We wound up tied for first and wound up coming in second for points in the tiebreaker.  Our misses:

• Which side of your brain would you be using if you were trying to determine if a new wardrobe would fit in your closet?
• Right
• What town in Australia first had gold discovered and also had a beer named for it?
• Castlemaine
• Tiebreaker - in what year was Rubik's cube invented (not marketed)?
• 1974

We enjoyed a long lunch outside on the aquavit deck while continuing to watch the sights in the Suez Canal.

Looking forward, we saw a couple ships in the haze which was weird since we were the lead ship of the convoy - but we soon figured it out

We had reached a bidirectional part of the canal and what we saw in front of us were ships heading in the south to north convoy

The west side of the canal is significantly more green with more housing and vegetation

Looking back, you can make out part of the convoy following us

At one point, a military helicopter flew by just to the east of the canal

Here's a good look at the ship that was right behind us - the COSCO Shipping Libra on its way from Antwerpen, Belgium to Yangshan, China - it passed us shortly after we both exited the canal

They are constantly dredging the canal

The dredge's output pipe, pumping sand from the canal

This is a truck ferry moving trucks from the east side of the canal to the west

Here is the line of trucks waiting for a ride - why?

If you look closely, you can see the swing bridge that spans the canal, but only at night - so, during the day, trucks wait for a ferry

Starting to see the development near Suez as we reach the south end of the canal

Port Taofik in Suez

Departing the canal into the Red Sea about 2:15PM

Suez, Egypt

Our pilots departed and we were on our way into the Red Sea

I mentioned that we were leading a convoy - here is an idea of what that means.

That's us in green just outside the canal - each arrow facing south was a ship following us - the north-facing arrows represent the ships in the north-facing convoy

I put together a stitched image of the entire canal and made it large enough so you can see where there are two channels and where it is one-way traffic only.  Great Bitter Lake is used to stage ships for the timing to ensure that both convoys can finish their transit together.

Our trip is happening at a leisurely pace of about 10 knots.  The cargo ships have more pressing deadlines so we were constantly passed after we exited the canal.  It was fun seeing the huge ships humming along at around 15-20 knots, zooming right past us.

We ran up a little early for dinner to catch the sunset.  Unfortunately, while we were on time for the sunset, we were sailing by a particularly high hill and we missed the sun's disappearance.  Still, the sky had a nice glow, so we settled for that.  

We enjoyed a nice pre-dinner martini thanks to my special bottle of vanilla vodka and then had a wonderful dinner with friends.

Tonight's entertainer was Leo Ward, a magician that promised the unexpected.  His show was entertaining and he gave the audience some laughs.

Tomorrow is another sea day en route to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.