Sailing Through the Suez

Day 89 & 90 at Sea; April 5, 2011

April 4^th finds us at the south end of the Suez Canal and waiting with a dozen or so other ships to make out way to the Mediterranean Sea. 

The Suez Canal takes us from Suez on the Red Sea to Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea.  The Egyptian side is generally green and fertile, primarily due to the River Nile delta.  The Sinai side is arid (no fresh water only salt) and littered with army posts built along the shore at strategic intervals. You even see some army tanks and vestiges of wars.  The difference is staggering. It was finished in 1869.  Did you know that Giuseppe Verdi’s opera, Aida was written to commemorate the opening of the Suez Canal.  It premiered at the Cairo Opera House in 1871.

At the north and south ends, the channel is too narrow for ships to pass so ships line up on either side to go through, pass in the middle, at Great Bitter Lake, and continue on.  Each ship is given a number and only so many are allowed through.  We were the first!

We celebrated coming into the Mediterranean Sea—I think we were all relieved to be out of the strict Muslin area and into a more western culture again.  Our first port is Ashdod, Israel.