Suez Canal - October 28
Somewhere around 5:30 am we entered the canal (I was told this - I was still asleep). I was up by 8am and quickly dressed to go out on deck and get some pictures. I went out on the bow for a while as we went under the Suez Canal bridge.
This was my second trip through the Suez Canal (2014 World Voyage was my first). Time for another short history lesson (once a teacher, always a teacher). The building of the canal was spearheaded by a French man, Ferdinand de Lesseps, and was built between 1859 and 1869. The canal is at sea level so there are no locks (de Lesseps tried to repeat his success by building a canal through Central America but there was no way to do it without locks, though he tried). The canal reduces the distance between Asia and Europe by about 5000 miles.
The west side of the canal is more inhabited and the east side, which is part of the Sinai Peninsula, is mostly desert. This is actually part of Asia and the Suez Canal Bridge links the two continents.
We had commentary from Jeremy (the Cruise and Travel Director) and the bow was open to the passengers. Just like the Panama Canal, it is a place you need to go to different parts of the ship to catch all of the sights.
While all of this was going on I carried on with my normal activities. With people watching the canal, I was able to find a team that needed one more person for 1pm trivia. We finished the transit at about 3:30 when we passed the city of Suez and entered the Red Sea. Jeremy told us that our transit cost $350,589 (which is over $200 per person).
Afternoon trivia was music from the 50's. I played alone and was able to get 17 out of 24 points. Usually, I do much worse on music trivia.
Afterwards I walked 5 laps around the deck since I had done a lot of sitting today.
We had to pick up our passports between 7 and 9 because the Egyptian authorities require this.
There were only three of us for dinner and I skipped the show because I needed to get things together for tomorrow and finish some items on Cruise Critic.
Sharm El-Sheikh tomorrow and I have a tour that was arranged on our roll call with the company, Across Africa.
1pm trivia - we had 11/18, winners had 13
1. How many walking legs does a lobster have?
2. Which two countries have the longest border?
3. What is a "haboob"?
4. What is the most popular car color?
5. What was the first animal to go into space?
6. How many tentacles does a squid have?
1. 8
2. US - Canada
3. sandstorm or windstorm
4. white
5. dog
6. 10
Smooth sailing until next time!
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