Back Suez Channel 2007-05-02 Suez Channel by Terry s/y Wings May 2007 Anxious to be out of Abu Tig, and with 160 miles to go to the Suez Canal, we left with another of those all important weather windows for the port of Suez, located on the south approach to the canal. We took two long days, over night in El Tor harbour one night and behind a reef just short of Suez the next. We lucked out with the weather, motoring most of the way. It was a relief to have the Red Sea behind us! That night, the wind gusted to thirty knots. Our agent, known as the “Prince of the Red Sea” and reputed to be the “least dishonest” of all the agents, met us on arrival, arranged to have our boat measured, filed all the required documents and got us on the list to move through the canal. The Suez Canal is not like the Panama Canal in that there are no locks. It is simply a large ditch through the desert. It is not wide enough for ships to pass safely, so two one way convoys are set up each day. The north bound convoy leaves in the morning, with the yachts, being slower, at the back. The transit for boats as slow as us, takes two days, stopping in the middle, at a lake wide enough to accommodate 2-way traffic. A pilot aboard is mandatory. Pilots are another rich source of stories about the scams they concoct. On another boat, their pilot told them that if they did not speed up, they would not make a bridge opening and they would have to overnight in the canal. They ran their engine as hard as they dared. There was no bridge. Most will complain loudly about their “present”, saying it’s not enough. It doesn’t seem to matter what you give them. We didn’t give them their present until the last minute, trying to avoid the verbal lashing, but I think we lucked out. We had two competent and polite gentlemen on board, and I don’t believe either would have complained. We were generous to both, and they would not have had any excuse to complain in any case. Neither pushed me to make better speed. We spent one lay day in the middle, at Ismalia. As we arrived, a fellow cruisers 60th birthday party was in full swing, so we joined the rest of the “transients” for an evening’s celebration. We left with our second pilot for the rest of the trip up the canal, dropping him to a pilot boat at Pt. Said and continuing on into the Med for the overnight sail/motor to Tel Aviv. We are very happy to have the Red Sea behind us. We will mostly miss those many exchanges, “hey mister, where you from?” And when we tell them, the answer was usually “America good, Bush bad”, followed by smiles and high fives all around! Without exception, everyone we have met has been friendly, enthusiastically welcoming us to their country with smiles and hand shakes.