Transit Suez Canal

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This is a once in a lifetime experience as neither of us expect to do this again. The Suez Canal is one of the man made wonders of the world. The canal opened in 1869 and has been expanded several times over the years and is now 120 miles long. The canal joins the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea (starting at Port Said at the Mediterranean End and ending at Port Tewfic at the Red Sea end) and its construction removed the requirement to sail around the bottom of Africa thereby increasing and facilitating trade between east and west.

It took 10 years to build the original 101 mile long canal. The original canal is a single-lane waterway with passing locations in the Ballah Bypass and the Great Bitter Lake, The canal has no locks, with seawater flowing freely through it. In general, the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. South of the lakes, the current changes with the tide at Suez. Construction began by creating two narrow service canals (one from each end). These canals were initially dug out by hand, then later widened by heavy equipment. Egypt was in debt when the construction started and, when the Egyptian Government was accused of using slave labour for the canal construction, the workers had to be withdrawn, and the government was forced to finance the purchase of dredging equipment, adding to the country's debt. With the dredging equipment, the construction was faster, but there was still a concern about the desert reclaiming the canal. This was solved by using ash and pumice from the volcanic Greek Island of Thira (aka Santorini) to line the canal and stop the erosion. When it opened, the fees that Egypt received for the canal passage never covered the interest on their debt. Eventually, Egypt had to sell their shares, giving control of the canal to the French and English. In the 1950s Egypt went to war with the British and reclaimed control of the canal. It was nationalized in 1956 and control was passed to the Suez Canal Authority.

As there are no locks and the canal is single lane, it was necessary to construct areas wide enough for ships to pass. We are writing this blog while anchored in the Bitter Lakes, part of a convoy of 18 southbound ships, waiting to be passed by 25 ships in the northbound convoy which, apparently, always has priority. So, for a rapid transit, travel north young man, or prepare for a six hour wait two thirds through the passage!

After six hours waiting in the Bitter Lake our convoy moved on to the second tranche of the Suez canal - all in a line about 300 metres apart. When we reached Suez (actually Suweis) at around 6.30 pm we swapped our Canal Pilot for a Gulf pilot. Pretty uneventful as the sun sets and we head down the Sinai peninsular. We were informed in the evening that the cost of the transit was $180 thousand.

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