Jewel of the Seas - Suez Canal Cruise: Day 7

We should have started crossing the Suez Canal at 04:30 am, but the canal had been blocked by a wrecked ship and we were therefore delayed for six hours - anchored outside Port Said along with many other ships that were also going south through the canal - of which three Maersk ships: Kirsten, Mogens and Marchen Maersk.

The Suez Canal was opened in 1869 and expanded by a parallel canal of 32 km in 2015 so that today it has a capacity of about 80 ships a day. The canal is a total of 192 km long - of which 163 km are dug canals - in the middle of the canal are Bitter Lakes. The canal is a military zone and along the canal were several military missions and checkpoints. Sinai desert on the left and Egypt on the right. At 10:30 we started our crossing - passing Port Said with heading south as the first ship in our convoy with Mogens Mærsk and Marchen Mærsk as the subsequent ships. At noon we passed the Al Salam Bridge, through the new extension of the Canal and past the El Ferdan railway bridge which is no longer in use. At 4 pm we reached Ismailia and sailed into Great Bitter Lake. The Canal is an impressive edifice and interesting to follow in what goes on along the canal; tugs, pilot boats, small car ferries, trains, very small fishing boats and all the other ships in the canal. Through the new channel, which has two lanes, we could see the upper part and chimney of the ships on the opposite road (to the north) behind the high sand walls.
It got dark at 4:30 pm, so we couldn't follow the last part of the trip through the canal. Late in the afternoon we went to a cocktail party for those who have sailed many times with Royal Caribbean. At 9 pm we sailed out of the canal at the Port of Suez on our way to Aqaba in Jordan. A transit time of 10 hours. Tonight we got a salad for starters and substitute for redcurrants - a very dry white fish - not a good substitute

Entrance to the Canal