Day 3, Saturday, Transit the Suez Canal
At around 2am Thomson Celebration dropped anchor at the waiting area for Northbound Traffic through the Suez Canal. After paying the fees (around £2500 – now that’s what I call a toll) and the obligatory Egyptian bribe we set off in convoy with a load of container ships to spend all day transiting the Suez Canal.
What you probably don’t know is that the canal is so narrow that there is only one way traffic. What happens is that a convoy gets to use several miles of the canal then has to sail into passing places to let the traffic coming the other way pass.
The weather for the transit was perfect and it was a restful day on board just watching the world go by.
This trip was quite emotional for my wife Amanda as her father served as a Welsh Guard in the 1950’s Suez Crisis and was stationed along the banks of the canal.
The next port of call will be Alexandria, Egypt on the Mediterranean.
