As I mentioned in my previous post, our original scheduled date for the transit of the Canal was the 4th April, the day on which I now write.

The Canal Authority are involved in a vast dredging and widening project; digging new channels and widening existing ones.  The aim is to be able to take larger vessels and also to avoid the one-way system presently in use.

Prior to the project, northbound and southbound convoys, (usually of 30 ships or so), would pass each other in the Bitter Lakes.  Now however, the Bitter lakes themselves are being dredged and having new channels cut.  The result?  South and north bound convoys can no longer pass each other and either convoy has to complete its entire transit before the next one can commence.  This has led to delays, one is never quite sure when one can transit and the convoy times vary from day-to-day.

This was the dilemma I found myself in and, after numerous emails with our agents in Suez and endless calculations, I decided that waiting for the 4th was not an option I cared for, there being no guarantee I would transit and the result would be too appalling to contemplate, missing ports in the Mediterranean.

 

So, on leaving Aqaba, we went for it, pedal to the metal, intending to pass the Registration Point, (an imaginary point, which, when you pass it, you have ‘arrived’ for a place in a convoy).  20 kts, around the Sinai Peninsula and up the Gulf of Suez, passing the Registration point at 8:45 a.m.   Now, all I had to hope for was that we had arrived early enough to make it that day.  I had emailed the Captain of the Pacific Princess and told him of my intentions when I left Aqaba; he too had to transit and decided to go for it too; an hour after we arrived at Suez, they ‘clocked-in’ .

We had to go to anchor, which is the norm and go through all the dreaded paperwork and inspections to ensure we were ‘capable’ of making the transit.  The good news was that amidst all this, we were told that we were No 29 in the next northbound convoy and could expect to leave around 3 p.m. that afternoon, my sigh of relief was audible, we had made it.

During the day, we watched the ships for the northbound convoy assembling, ducks-in-a-row, they made their way towards the entrance channel.  First went the Container ships, then the bulk-carriers, then the Tankers and finally, at 3:30 ( Egyptians are not known for their punctuality), us.

The transit is straightforward, one ‘slots’ in, astern of the ship ahead and matches her speed, about 1 mile behind.  All the other vessels do the same.

 

The Sinai peninsular is on our right, Egypt proper is on our left.  It could be described as ‘sand on our right’, ‘cultivation on our left’, there is nothing but vast desert to the east.  The first item that strikes one is the military presence; watch-towers, walls, pontoon bridge sections, barracks and anti-aircraft weapons. It is unfortunate that, with our transit starting so late, the majority of it was done in darkness.  We completed our transit at 3 a.m. on the morning of the 4th, a 12-hour crossing and now we are slow-steaming for Ashdod, Israel tomorrow morning.