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Published: July 26th 2016
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Suez Canal (second crossing)
A bollard. It assists in moving ships that have lost power to the shoreline. The canal must remain open at all times. The Suez Incident
Our first transit of the Suez in January, southward, was unremarkable other than if you consider where we were and what we were doing, which was pretty cool in itself. In March, though, when we headed north, we became the Ship of Spies.
We had left the canal entry at Port Suez far behind and we passed several monuments, towns and villages, and of course, lots and lots of military buildings and equipment. People were out on every deck, taking pictures, many with professional long lenses.
I was out on the bow, watching the sand dunes slide by on one side, and ten-foot military walls on the other. A guy pointed to the bollards lining the sandy eastern shore, spaced at long intervals.
"They're for tying off ships that lose power and have to be moved out of the way," he said. "I was here in '59, and our propulsion died. Captain gave the order, local guy climbed up on the bow rail, hiked up his robes and jumped three stories into the dirty water, much worse than today. He swam a rope to shore, wrapped it around a bollard and swam it back.
Suez Canal (second crossing)
The bow of ms Rotterdam as she sails through the Suez Canal. They threw a rope down for him, and he climbed back up, all smelly and covered with canal gunk."
Life in Egypt is rough these days. It has to be grating for the locals to see the cruise ships sailing past where they used to land, bringing money and lots of it. But because Egypt can't keep tourists safe, they get no more tourists. And thousands lived off tourism. No more. The towns are grey and empty, there is no colour. The only noises are machinery, paving the canal side patrol roads or building higher walls, and the call to prayer travels throughout the towns and across the canal, to echo unheard in the empty dunes.
Nevertheless, the odd ferry crosses the canal between checkpoints, carrying the locals to and from jobs and homes and families, and these people waved happily and recorded our passage on their cellphones as we waved back and photographed them.
So it was a bit of a start when the cruise director came on the PA to ask us to stop taking pictures.
As we sailed past Port Suez, some enterprising military officer perhaps wanted to appear on the ball and
had us followed. It was evidently reported back that we were taking pictures of military installations willy-nilly. This sent them into such a state of higgledy-piggledy that they threatened the cruise line with a huge fine if the passengers did not cease photographing military installations immediately!
At about the same time, after having a nice leisurely steam for a while, passengers on the stern reported a military vessel coming up fast behind.
It was significant because there are very strict rules regarding ships throwing off a wake. Even a small one from a fishing boat can easily damage the unwalled areas of the fragile shoreline, which tends to collapse without warning. Surely they had been dispatched on an important mission. Yes indeed, Port Suez naval command had sent an armed patrol boat to ensure our compliance with their directive of not taking pictures of military installations.
Of course,that brought out the armchair lawyers. "Wal, I'll take the pictures anyway. What are they gonna do? Take my camera?" "Perhaps, and they'll fine the cruise line." "They can't do that, it's a free country!" Um, no it isn't, it's a repressive theocracy. "Well, an installation is stationary, so I'm
Suez Canal (second crossing)
A military installation perhaps? gonna keep right on photographing mobile things. If it don't move, it's an installation. That jeep moves, that PT boat moves. I'm takin' pictures!" Uh-huh, good luck with that in Egyptian court, if indeed you'd make it to court.
People lined the various vantage points on the port side, to watch the jeep with its armed soldiers and a mounted .50 cal. From the bed of the truck, beside the machine gun, some poor bouncing soldier was trying to photograph us trying to photograph military installations. We could tell he was taking pictures because we could easily see the flash going off; the flash, of course, dubious in its utility in broad daylight at 300 metres.
The flash continued to strobe, and the jeep had to make a few dekes back through the wall to get around an impassable bit of canal road, to then reappear, engine racing and flash strobing, at the next canal access checkpoint.
The passengers were greatly amused in general, but a few expressed the concerns that the enemy could well be in our midst, spying on Egypt for the other bad guys. One strident voice pointed out loudly that the crew was
Suez Canal (second crossing)
The ferries continued their work back and forth across the canal. Lots of waving and picture taking! chock-full of foreigners. Somebody else mentioned that we were, in fact, all foreigners here, and the first lady talked about security and soon enough invoked the wisdom of Donald Trump and people stopped listening to her.
Others practiced stealth photography, hiding themselves behind bulkheads with their long lenses, concealed from the view of the patrol boat and now the jeep pacing us on the shore. Shortly after the arrival of the jeep on the canal road, the patrol boat peeled off, hopefully for more important duties.
The circus ended as the jeep abruptly ran out of road, with no easy access back through the wall, which was by now just piles of rocks rather that barriers of brick and concrete. The pavement also had turned to big rocks, and the jeep coasted to a halt.
As we all cheerfully waved goodbye, one guy with a long lens snapped pictures of the jeep and its occupants and commented, "They're waving back." We redoubled our waving efforts as the last of the jeep's photographer's flashes faded into the distance.
As night fell we slid past Port Said and into the cooler Mediterranean, headed for Naples, and over dinner
Suez Canal (second crossing)
Plying a trade, but we don't know what one. discussed what kind of espionage market there might be for our photos of mosques, monuments and people.
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