The Suez Canal and the Red Sea

The Suez Canal is full of surprises. It joins two large bodies of water and so I assumed that there would be a lock. Wrong! There is just over one meter difference between both ends.
Second surprise, it is a one way system, a consequence of increasingly larger cargo vessels. At a speed of 5 to 6 knots it takes about 12 hours to transit the full length of the canal. This is broken into two six hour passages. Northbound and southbound traffic start at the same time and meetin the middle of the canal where there is a series of small lakes. Both convoys stop here and regroup before proceeding with their journey. There are two convoys each way twice daily.
At 5:30 A.M. on Thursday 11th. February Mal and I found ourselves on the bridge listening to Port Said traffic controllers communicating, in English,with ships at anchor waiting to transit the canal. We had watched the Jakarta glide to a halt and drop anchor earlier. At 6:30 A.M. we we redirected to pass buoy 8 behind the container ship Ym Tianjin and in front of the bulk carrier Daewoo Ace and thus we became part of the long convoy traveling south along the canal. Daewoo Ace was in such a hurry to join the queue that he set off our "imminent collision" alarm causing a little early morning cardiac exercise. I wondered if he perhaps thought he was in New York harbor where I understand that right of way belongs to the helmsman with the most guts! So began our long trek south.
We followed a long seawall into Port Said harbor where we were met with frenzy of activity. Ferries of all shapes and sizes traversed the harbor,at seemingly reckless speeds, with little regard for the freighters in their midst. It was at this point that Mal and I became spectators to a strange custom. It happens to every ship that passes through the canal. A small motor boat with three men pulled along side our ship. A line was thrown from the ship which was tied off to the boat. This line was gradually played out until the boat was opposite the poop deck and traveling at the exact same speed as our ship. The hook of our aft crane was then lifted out of its cradle and lowered until it hovered just over the boat. A loop from the boat was passed over the hook. The crane then lifted the boat out of the water to the level of the poop deck. Three men with large sacks disembarked from the boat. We had instant bazaar, everything from plastic pyramids to cheap perfume. These boatmen, as they are known as, stayed with us for the entire duration of our trip through the canal.
Eventually we passed out of Port Said and into the canal. The East bank quickly gave way to an undulating dessert which remained with us for almost the entire journey. A deserted dirt road separated it from the canal.Occasionally we would spot army personnel in fatigues and helmets, carrying very serious looking guns. I suspect that the canal is under surveillance at all times. Think for a moment how important it is to global commerce.The west bank of the canal was much livelier. Here a super highway with toll booths paralleled us. Had the bill boards not been written in Egyptian we could have been anywhere in the civilized world. We passed green cultivated fields, shanty towns, houses beautifully landscaped and even towns and cities. Finally we reached....a bridge! This is surprise number three. There are only two bridges that cross the canal in its entire length, and one is a railway bridge. At the end of the first leg we passed under the Japan-Egypt Friendship Bridge, the only road connection between the African and Asian continents. This helps to explain the frenzy of harbor traffic at Port Said.
Shortly after passing the bridge the canal divided. Here the convoy stopped. Linesmen in boats took our lines and tied us off to the port side embankment. It was 2:00 P.M., six hours after we entered the canal. The northbound convoy now proceeded to enter the canal. There were a lot of ships and it was 8:30 PM before we cast off and continued our journey south through the lakes and back into the canal. Again there was desert to the east, but the west bank also became less populated. At 3:00 A.M. we reached Suez. Our boatmen left us, no doubt to hitch a lift north on the next convoy. Finally we passed into the Red sea.
What can I say about the Red Sea. It's not red, it's very wide and it's very long. The shipping lane is in the middle so we only caught occasional glimpses of land and suddenly we were in the Gulf of Aden, pirate territory.