October 11, 2008 – Suez Canal

Today we entered the Suez Canal before 6:00am. We stood on Deck 12 above the bridge and watched quite a show as several small boats came along side to board pilots and other “officials.” We will have to tie up in a parallel canal, a canal version of a rail siding, while the northbound convoy passes. The Egyptians require an open boat to pull the ropes to the buoys and, since we don’t have one on board, we had to hoist a small one a couple of feet out of the water and carry it with us. The safety officer required that the 2 men in the boat have life vests so two were passed to them. One almost fell overboard while doing that. It was a far more entertaining show than a sitcom. We arrived at a waiting spot around 10:30am and tied up to the shore – literally. There are bollards sticking out of the sand for the ropes and the ship is pulled up against the underwater bank, much like pulling into a dock. While tied up, a tug type boat came alongside demanding cigarettes and the officers ignored them, so they tried ramming the ship causing damage only to their boat. The captain announced that we are ship number 3 in the convoy and the captain negotiated with the pilot to be able to jump ahead of the others in a lake area to get to the Suez port sooner to pick up guests who had an overnight in Cairo. That will still be around 11:00pm. The Suez is nicknamed the “Marlboro Canal” due to the exorbitant supply of cigarettes and liquor needed to pay bribes to get through the canal. It is reputedly the most expensive passage in terms of bribes in the world.

During the wait our team again won trivia. We were late heading back into the canal and the sun had set so we missed the scenery. The mosques along the shore were all lit up with green fluorescent lighting. We joined a group in the Galileo lounge for drinks and then went to the Compass Rose for dinner where 6 of us at the table had pre ordered seared fois gras. Instead of the standard one piece appetizer, they brought out a tray of it so we each had 4 or 5 pieces – it was heavenly. After dinner we watched the ship’s production group show and then went to bed.