Suez Canal

We transited the Suez Canal on Sunday, 5 April. We arrived at the northern terminus of Port Said very early in the morning and began sailing through around 06:00 as the third ship in a convoy of six. Like the Panama Canal the Suez is too narrow to allow simultaneous two-way traffic so there is a series of convoys in each direction.

The activity around the entrance to the canal is quite hectic with pilot boats running back and forth and lots of small fishing boats heading into the Mediterranean. Apparently Marlboro cigarettes are an important currency with the Suez pilots; one of our crew had to go down the gangway to deposit a carton in what looked like a purpose-built and ready net held out by one of the crew of the pilot boat.

Traveling further we now encountered the ferries that go back and forth between the banks of the canal. Each one was full of cars, trucks and people and they waited rather impatiently for the much larger cargo ships to get out of the way before heading out before the next one arrived.

The next task was to secure a small mooring craft to our side. The mooring boat is used to carry the lines to the shore in the designated waysides where we have to wait for the northbound traffic to clear. The mooring boat, a small motorboat with two men on board, pulled alongside and matched our speed before securing a towline. Then one of our crew lowered the #4 crane over the side and the two men affixed their boat to the hook before one and all were simply lifted into the air. 

We passed from Port Said and very quickly the landscape changed from that of bustling port city to one of open fields, small shacks and farms. The starboard, or western side of the canal was much more cultivated with irrigated fields while the eastern side was mostly just barren desert. Our convoy proceeded steadily along, passing numerous military watchtowers, presumably for the security of the canal.

Shortly after 10:00, about 50 km from Port Said and shortly after passing the Al Qantarah Bridge, the canal splits into two channels separated by a low, sandy island. Our convoy went to the western, or right side channel where we all moored  to await the passage of the northbound convoy. This was where the mooring boat came into play; it was lowered to the water and the crew took the lines from the stern and made them fast to some bollards that were positioned along the shore of the little island. Accompanied now by a third member who also came on board earlier, they physically dragged the heavy hawser up the sand. Safely secured, the Pilot left the ship and we all settled down for a few hours' wait. We were told that we'd be moving again around 16:00. The Captain and some of the crew took advantage of this break to get some much deserved rest having been up most of the night and all morning with the maneuvering.

Around midday the activity on board turned to commerce as a small bazaar opened on the poop deck where the crew of the mooring boat set up shop to sell a variety of souvenirs, clothes and toiletries. I bought a couple of tacky nicknacks, probably overpaying as these guys were masters of haggling. 

A little later I received a call from the 2nd Officer, Nicu, who was standing watch on the Bridge, to let me know that we were about to be passed by one of the largest container vessels in the world, the Edith Maersk. She was part of the northbound convoy that was passing us in the opposite channel. The sight of these large ships passing is a bit surreal as the channel itself is barely visible so it looks almost as if they are traveling across the sand. Having seen quite a few large container vessels these past few months I was still impressed by the sheer bulk of the Edith Maersk. She's 390 meters long, or more than twice the length of the Rickmers Jakarta and has a beam of 56 meters, double our width. Putting that in a bit of perspective, those dimensions are the equivalent of more than five acres. She was followed immediately by her somewhat smaller sister vessel, the Skagen Maersk, coming in at a slightly more modest 347 meters long.

Sometime after 16:30 our new Pilot appeared and we and the other ships made ready to resume our passage. The lines were cast off and we began to pick up speed on our way to Suez. I watched from the Bridge for a while as we passed some towns and cities and some larger resorts at Lake Timsah. There is a layer of dust and I suppose smog that hangs over the land, so the sunset was a rather dull event. The sun slipped down into the haze as a glowing orb in a dusty sky before disappearing below the horizon. I continued to watch for a while before heading down to my cabin for the evening.