Finsatsea: May 21 - Suez Canal

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After a relaxing day with wonderful fresh breezes while cruising out of the Gulf of Aqaba and through the Gulf of Suez with the Sinai Peninsula on our starboard and Upper Egypt on our port we arrived around 7PM last night at our anchorage for the gathering of our convoy to go through the Canal. Ships have allocated slots in convoys north and south bound. We are number one in our group.

The Sinai Peninsula. It looked pretty desolate until we got close to the canal.

We began our transit around 3:30 AM (we weren’t awake). The Suez Canal was built between 1859 and 1869 by the Suez Canal Company, a French operation created by Ferdinand de Lesseps. It is a sea level canal unlike the Panama Canal so there are no locks. It is approximately 120 miles long and it shortened the journey from London to the Arabian Sea by some 5500 miles. Until 1956 the Canal was owned by the United Kingdom and France. In that year Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized it which precipitated the Suez Crisis. While the canal is still owned and operated by the Suez Canal Authority of Egypt, by treaty vessels of all countries whether commercial or warships may use the waterway without distinction. Last week one of our battle groups passed through on its way to the Arabian Sea.

This De Lesseps was an interesting character. Some years after his great success building the Suez, a feat which gained him fame and fortune, he proposed building a sea level canal through Panama. He had never been there and had no idea of the differences in terrain and climate. He formed a company and enlisted investors. Eventually, the company went bankrupt and he became something of a pariah. It was then that the US stepped in under the leadership of Teddy Roosevelt and built the Panama Canal with its sets of locks. This was only accomplished though at the expense of a lot of loss of life due to disease. Only after Walter Reed figured out that mosquitoes were transmitting the diseases of yellow fever and malaria and how to deal with them was progress made.

So back to the Suez. On either side there is sand, sand and more sand. We are facing the Sinai side and there are lots of watchtowers and little forts. There is all kinds of construction going on. We don’t what they are building but a lot of sand is being moved. Then a little while ago we started passing what looks like a new city. There are blocks and blocks of 6 to 8 story buildings in rows and rows stretching almost as far as the eye can see. Some of them look completed; others are still under construction. We suppose that Egypt has decided they need a new city on this side of the canal. Also since the last time we passed through the canal, a portion has been widened to speed up transit time and a side channel has been opened to allow berthing and unloading of ships. It’s clear that a lot of investment has been made here.

Sand, sand, sand

Fort and watchtower on the Sinai side. There are lots of these along the way.

Some of the towers are manned as this was; some are not.

The line of very large container ships following behind us

Fishermen hanging out near us. We stirred up the fish for them

And another boat fishing with hand lines. Notice both boats means of propulsion - oars

A truck full of construction workers who drove by honking and waving at us

Commemorative sign in front of the newly built city

New city which looked huge. I think it may be called Ismaila but I'm not sure.

One of the many mosques built among the new structures

We’ll complete our transit sometime around mid-afternoon and we’ll be in the Mediterranean. Tomorrow we have a very early morning wake-up as we arrive in Ashdod, Israel. Each passenger is required to have a face-to-face meeting with Israeli immigration.