Tuesday, April 5th, 2011 6:00 AM – 6:00 PM
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| Exiting the Suez Canal |
Overnight we make our way south through the Gulf of Aqaba and reenter the Red Sea in the early morning. After passing through the Strait of Tiran we alter course to the west and then to the north to join the traffic schemes in the Gulf of Suez. We intend to drop anchor 2 miles southwest of the Suez Canal entrance in the late afternoon where we shall spend the night before our transit in the morning. We heaved the anchor and entered the Suez Canal at 6:00 AM near the Port of Suez. Passage through the canal is operated on a convoy system which is timed so that the convoys in each direction pass each other at the Great Bitter Lake. Unlike the Panama Canal, there are no locks so the convoy will be continuous. We entered the Mediterranean Sea at Port Said at 4:30 PM.
The Suez Canal is a 118 mile maritime canal in Egypt between Suez on the Red Sea and Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea. The canal allows two-way north-south water transport from Europe to Asia with circumnavigating Africa.
The canal was built between 1859 and 1869, but it had been considered for hundreds of years. The Suez Canal has no locks—the Mediterranean and Red Seas are at the same level. It is 984 feet (300 M) wide. It also has a railroad running its entire length parallel to its west bank. Most of the Canal is not wide enough for two ships to pass side by side. To accommodate this, there is one shipping lane and several passing bays where ships can wait for others to pass. Ships must travel at a low speed to prevent erosion of the canal’s banks by the ships’ waves.
It is one of the world’s most significant waterways as it supports 8% of the world’s shipping traffic and almost 50 ships pass through the canal daily.
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| On the bow of the ship |
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| Fishing boats in the canal |
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| Resort in Egypt along the canal |
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| Military along the canal |
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| Ferry boat crossing the canal |
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