Subject: Report # 98 Sailing Towards the Suez Canal April 7, 2016 Thursday Mostly sunny, hazy & 73 degrees (not 91 degrees as stated)
After leaving Aqaba late last night, the Amsterdam went back out of the Gulf of Aqaba, wrapped around the bottom of the Sinai Peninsula, then proceed to sail northwest into the Red Sea. The very first thing we noticed was that the temperature had changed. It was much cooler, almost chilly with a strong wind blowing across the decks. Most of that sticky humidity has disappeared.
Also disappearing a little at a time, are the coils of razor wire that we have been sailing with. Captain Jonathon had mentioned that the wire on the starboard side would be down while in port yesterday. The rest of the rusted wire was taken off this morning, as well as the fire hoses being rolled up and put away. Good thing, because the yellow handles that the hoses were connected to were a walking hazard, sticking out just enough to possibly trip over them, if you are not watching.
There were few folks out this morning on the promenade deck. Perhaps it was better to be inside attending Barbara H's talk on things to do and see in Livorno for the cities of Florence, Pisa, and Lucca. She will be caught up very soon as there are only about four more ports after that. Where has the time gone?
One job we had this morning was having another room key re-done, since it quit working yesterday. It seems that when there are two cards, such as ours, if one goes unusable, the other screws up. This happened yesterday when mine would not work at the exit kiosk. When I had it re-done, Bill's quit working. So this morning both of our cards had to be replaced. And they both worked to open the door, but who knows for how long. Sometimes they blame magnetic purses for the erasing, but neither of our cards had been anywhere near that. Go figure…..
A new vendor has come onboard with their Le Vian collection of jewelry. One of the sales girls practically ran up the staircase from deck four to hand out a drawing card for something free. The only thing was that we had to be there at 11am to win. Correction….we had to stay for the entire talk before someone won something. They may have some pretty impressive pieces, but they cost an arm and a leg. Not up our alley.
The Suez Canal was the subject of the guest speaker, Vivianne Rowan in the Queens Lounge. Even though we heard some of the lecturer's talk were televised, we have yet to find one. If they cycle with other ship talks, for instance, the shore excursions, we may be missing them.
The last belly dancing demo took place in the Queens Lounge this afternoon. We had assumed she was gone, but we were wrong. It is still appropriate to have Teresa on board as we are now sailing between the mainland of Egypt on the left, and the Sinai Peninsula on the right. And belly dancing is something you would see while in Egypt.
So even though we are not going to any port or city in Egypt, we are still transiting the Suez Canal. Earlier in the planning of this cruise, we had stops in Safaga for Luxor, the resort town of Sharm El Sheikh, and Alexandria for tours to Cairo. Due to political unrest, all of these fascinating ports were eliminated….again. Last year, the same thing happened, but only when we were closer to the area. Many folks had tours at the time, and they all had to be cancelled. Really a disappointment.
Here are some facts on Egypt. The capital is Cairo, and the population of the country is 83,082,869 people who speak mainly Arabic. The total area is 386,560 square miles of mostly hot, dry desert. Their lifeline is the mighty Nile River, which runs from South to North, supplying the country with all the irrigation needed to survive.
Many years ago, while on a Seabourn world cruise, we did an overland tour to see Cairo, the Pyramids of Giza, and the Sphinx. At sunset the first night, we were treated to a private laser light and music show at the Sphinx. It was followed with a dinner with Dr. Hawi Hawass, an Egyptologist, who among other accomplishments, had recently uncovered more tombs and lost treasures. He gave a talk with the help of a video involving his historic find.
The next day, we had a private tour at the Pyramids, accessing the inside of the Great Pyramid with our group only. The entire overland trip was over-the-top, and we never repeated it., because it would never be as good.
A couple of years ago, we did an overnight to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings with an HAL group. Now that these sites are inaccessible to all of us, we are sure glad we did it when we could. Now that these ports are off of most of the itineraries, we consider ourselves lucky to have done these excursions in style.
An interesting random fact about Egypt is that it is the driest country in Africa. Average rainfall is less than 51 mm, or if we did our calculations right, is less than 2 inches. Like we said, it is a good thing the Nile flows through it.
Hopefully, tomorrow, we will be able to supply some interesting facts about the Suez Canal. During lunch in the dining room today, Captain Mercer laid out his plans for tomorrow's transit. Sometime today, we will reach a point where we have to stop, and be boarded by local authorities. They will check us out and also the ship's condition to make sure we are "fit" to transit the canal. They cannot afford to have any vessel break down as many places are not passible with more than one line of ships going at the same time. In other words, there is one way traffic in some places.
Once cleared, we get our spot in a convoy. Captain Mercer hopes to be in the lead, followed by several other ships, not necessarily passenger cruise ships. He hopes for an early start time, so we can be exiting the canal before darkness descends. That did not happen last year, as we were delayed in starting, and our exit was well after 11pm.
Lunch for us was in the dining room with our buddies. Every time they serve almond-crusted chicken tenders, we make it a point to go there. We also split a burger and a toasted cheese sandwich….both good. Lunch is always nice in here. And to make us happier, for dessert, they had a Jamaican calypso tart, which was really what we know as mud pie.
Shortly after lunch was done, there was an unexpected alarm with seven blasts. This was not a drill, but something real, as we saw a crew member flying down the stairs from deck five. Captain Mercer came on the speaker and said there had been an electrical fire on deck A, causing smoke, which triggered the alarm. It had been contained almost immediately, thanks to a quick response. Good to know.
Sometime around 4pm, the ship slowed to a stop, and the Captain announced that we were meeting with the Egyptian officials. Going out on the promenade deck, we watched as several local boats pulled alongside the ship. They really did not look official, with the exception of the pilot boat. Even though we are in an area very close to the Suez Canal, we assume we are still on the radar for safety procedures. Yes, we are surrounded with tankers and container ships, but one never knows what to expect in this part of the volatile world.
We would remain in a holding position (at anchor) for the rest of the day it appeared. The officials did board the ship by a ladder. The plan is to anchor up at 5am, and begin our transit tomorrow morning around 6am.
Three of our tablemates had alternate plans tonight, so there was enough room for 10 of us. The menu choices were not extensive, as they are most nights. But we did manage to find two good entrees in the mix. One was a mango roasted chicken, and the other was a short rib dinner with BBQ sauce. Barb said the job fish was good, even though none of us had ever heard of that fish. Galumpi, a stuffed cabbage with ground meat and rice was also popular. We kept dessert light, since we had such a great Mississippi mud pie at lunchtime. Perhaps we will order that for the entire table some night.
Showtime featured a mysterious group of fellows who were called Casablanca Steps. No one at our table has ever seen or heard of them, so unless we attend their show, we don't know what they will do. Many years ago, while trying to figure out what a group did because there was no description, the Cruise Director said that if he wrote some of the show descriptions, no one would go. His motto, was "keep 'em guessing".
As always, we are looking forward to the transit of the Suez Canal, a much different experience from the Panama Canal.
Bill & Mary Ann
Pilot boat and official's boat
A ship waiting like us
Another ship waiting
Some vessels are odd-looking
More visitors to the Amsterdam
One comes, another goes
Lots of boat traffic
The start of the Suez Canal
Some local fishing boats
A tanker waits
Many vessels waiting
Going nowhere until tomorrow
A larger ship
Sun was going down
We are somewhere in the Red Sea, close to the Suez Canal
Once the ship stopped, it warmed up
