Day 129: Suez Canal … Transiting Another Big Ditch

Monday, 15 May 2017
At Sea — Mediterranean Sea … En Route to Haifa

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:15p (IDT) … UTC 6:15p (15 May)
Temp: 71.8F (22.1C)
Position: 32.39.99N / 32.49.62E

A man does not climb a mountain without bringing some of it
away with him, and leaving something of himself upon it.
~ Sir Martin Conway ~

The way I see it, there are two great manmade waterways in the world that have been a boon to cargo and passenger vessels.  Though the Panama Canal is the ‘newer’ of the two, it’s the first one we had occasion to transit … first in 2001 … then a few more times after that, including this year in the early days of our RTW voyage.  Today, we are transiting the older one of these waterways — the Suez Canal.  It might be the only time we do so.  To that end, I will be spending the day on the outer decks so I can enjoy every minute of it … and write about it in ‘real time’ as the mood strikes.

Flashback to Earlier …

Fumes — the bane of our existence … and the only thing that’s marred our enjoyment of this great voyage we are on.  Last night was particularly bad.  It was more than fumes, really … more like an odd, thick, unidentifiable smell that blanketed the air.  Insignia was at anchor in the ‘parking lot’ near the entrance to the Suez Canal … along with a great many other ships that were to be part of our convoy today.  Perhaps the smell was a mix of smoke and diesel fumes from the ships, and desert sand and what have you from the shore.  Whatever it was … it was BAD!

At first the smell was only outside.  No sitting on the veranda to read, but at least all was clear in the room.  That changed at some point.  Not sure when, but the offensive odor was strong enough inside the cabin that it woke us up around midnight.  I tried to just go back to sleep, but I started to feel queasy … and then a coughing fit took over.  We thought to air out the cabin, but the smell was worse outside.  In fact, it seemed to permeate the back half of the interior of the ship.  So, we went down to the front desk to see about getting another room to sleep in.  There were several passengers milling about … all from various decks and parts of the ship … all complaining about the same smell.  At least this time we weren’t alone in our misery.  Luckily, we were able to snag a fume-free cabin on deck 6 forward.  By the time we woke up this morning, the smell in the affected parts of the ship had dissipated.

The cabin where we spent the night was behind one of the lifeboats and had a restricted view.  Not that it mattered … we were there to sleep.  But it did mean that our first glimpse of the Suez Canal when we woke up at 6:30a this morning was through the windows of the lifeboat.  Time to return to our cabin and take photos from the veranda … and have our breakfast there as well.

The canal has an east-west orientation … such that the sun, which was on the starboard side — overlooking the Sinai — was still blocked by the ship.  It was cool — the NavChannel said the temperature was only 70F (21C) … lovely.  That was at 7:00a.  It didn’t take long for the sun to move onto the veranda.  Which is when I moved to the deck 5 promenade.

Great Bitter Lake …

It’s 9:15a.  I am in a niche between the tender boat cranes on the deck 5 promenade.  Not only does this afford privacy, but it keeps me out of the stiff breeze that is blowing as well.  Insignia is currently going through the Great Bitter Lake portion of the Suez Canal.  There are no ships in front of us, so I believe we are leading the convoy transiting to the Mediterranean.  I’m not sure what’s on the starboard side, but here on the port side, the shoreline of mainland Egypt is distant and hazy.  There are buildings on shore — they might be resorts … or private homes … too far to make out clearly.  We are passing cargo vessels at anchor.  Perhaps they are part of the convoy heading to the Red Sea … maybe waiting for our convoy to exit the narrow part of the canal so they can continue on their way.  Oddly, though, they are all facing north, so who knows.  The further we get into the lake, the more glimpses I catch of small boats — fishermen I think.

Continuing the Transit …

It’s now 11:00a … it’s taken me a while to write this post because I keep popping up and down to take photos.  Mui just showed up.  He says there are a lot of black flies on the veranda.  I might not be able to sit out there until we are out in the Med … away from land.  There are flies on the promenade deck also, but the wind keeps them at bay and I don’t have to swat at them too often.

This transit has been more interesting than I thought it would be.  I was expecting just a ditch between sand dunes.  After all, that is how the Suez Canal is often described.  But I can see plenty of activity on shore.  As well, there are security checkpoints, villages, and towns … some closer than others.  All of them add considerable interest to what would otherwise be a boring transit.  We’re keeping an eye out for tanks, which passengers who’ve been through before have told us they’ve seen … but no sightings thus far.  I’m going to take a break from writing and go see if there is anything of interest on the Sinai side of the canal.

The Canal — An Overview …

Well, there was nothing of real interest on the other side … just some buildings in the distance … and sand … lots of sand.  We still have a-ways to go before we arrive in Isma’iliya.  I’m going to take advantage of this time to include a bit about the history of the Suez Canal … the base info is paraphrased from today’s edition of The Currents.

It’s believed that the first person to think about building an east-west oriented canal through Wadi Tumilat to join the Nile and the Red Sea was Pharaoh Senusret III (from the 12th Dynasty).  His purpose was to make trade with Punt (now Ethiopia) easier.  By the time Rameses II began to rule in the 13th century BC the canal was a reality … at least there is historic evidence of that being the case.  In 600 BC Herodotus mentions that the canal, which had fallen into disrepair, was re-excavated, but the work was never completed.

It was a thousand years before another attempt was made at a canal.  It was the end of the 18th century and Napoleon was in Egypt when he considered a canal that would join the Med with the Red Sea.  But a survey done by the French concluded that the Red Sea was higher than the Med, and thus a lockless canal was not possible.  They were wrong, of course.

Then, during the mid 19th century, Ferdinand de Lesseps — of the Panama Canal fame — came onto the scene.  He got concessions from Said Pasha, who was the Viceroy of Egypt at the time, to found a company to construct a canal.  This canal was to be open to all nations.  In return for the lease of the necessary lands, the company was to operate the canal for 99 years.  It was 1858 when the company began operations.  Then it ran into financial difficulties and had to be bailed out by Said Pasha to keep it in operation.  The Brits and the Turks didn’t care for this arrangement; they managed to have the work suspended until Napoleon III intervened.

The first part of the canal was completed between 1860-62.  It had an immediate impact on world trade.  It also made it easier for the Europeans to penetrate into Africa.  In 1875, Said Pasha’s successor was forced to sell the shares in the company to the UK.  In 1888, six years after British troops had already moved in, the Convention of Constantinople declared the canal a neutral zone under the protection of the Brits.

The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 continued the protection arrangement.  But 14 years later, the Egyptians repudiated the treaty.  And three years after that Great Britain agreed to pull out.  When President Nasser nationalized the canal, it led to the 1956 Suez War … during which the Brits, French, and Israelis invaded the area for a week.  Ships damaged and sunk during this brief war caused the canal to be closed until April 1957.  Subsequently — beginning in 1974 — the canal and the Sinai came under the protection of UN forces.

In 2015 an expansion plan was unveiled by Egypt … declared by President Sisi to be “Egypt’s Gift to the World.”  In addition to widening the canal, an additional lane has been added, increasing the daily traffic from 50 to 97 vessels, and reducing the transit time from 18 to 11 hours on average.  Plans to turn the canal into an international center for shipping and vessel repair/service is in the works.

Insignia used the new transit lane today.  Throughout the day, we saw evidence of the expansion and the future plans described in the previous paragraph.  It was odd to see what was obviously a ship’s smoke stack moving behind the sand dunes at times — an indication that the old canal lane is still active.

Continuing the Suez Canal Transit …

The activity on the mainland Egypt shore picked up just before noon.  Construction of the expansion seems to be responsible for the bulk of that activity.  We also saw several ferries carrying vehicles and people from one side to the other … this came as a surprise as I wasn’t aware there was such service in the canal zone.  At one point we passed several monuments … one was a statue of an Egyptian worker digging in the dunes … an homage, I imagine, to the labor force that worked — and continues to work — on the building and maintenance of the canal.

At noon, Captain B came on the PA with his usual sea day stats.  I noted two pieces of information from that announcement.  The temperature — 77F (25C); and the expected exit time for the transit — 3:30p.  If we entered the canal around 4:30a as was announced yesterday, we will indeed be completing the transit in 11 hours.

It was another hour or so before we passed a large settlement area.  From the map in The Currents, I can only guess that it was Isma’iliye as there are no other settlements in that section of the canal that are as big.  The scenery was similar to the towns we passed to/from Safaga to Luxor … taller buildings, though.  As we passed by, the ship sounded its horn … whether to tell another vessel to get out of the way or to salute the city … I have no idea.  The horn has been sounded several times since.

Since passing Isma’iliye, the scenery has been pretty much unbroken sand dunes on the Sinai side.  A rock wall with guard towers blends into the scenery.  Nothing else as far as the eye can see.  On the mainland Egypt side, the scenery is quite the opposite … fertile fields abound.  There is a long wall with intermittent guard towers running the length of the canal.  Lots of power lines as well … taking power to the heavily settled delta region of lower Egypt.  Occasional settlements are visible … not near the canal, though.  The only buildings along the shore are military outposts, with soldiers waving to us and calling out their welcome.

Wrapping Up …

Around 3:00p, we started passing in sight of Port Said.  It was off in the distance, and the air was rather hazy, so we didn’t see as much as I thought we would.  Fifteen minutes later we were in sight of what would be our exit out of the Suez Canal.  The wind picked up as we left the canal and entered Mediterranean waters.  Another milestone — transiting the Suez Canal — has now been notched into our belts.

Tomorrow will be the first of our two days in Israel … we will be docked in Haifa.

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