What Paddy Shot At

I can’t believe that the computer failed but, of course, I hadn’t saved it. Lose and learn

I hope I do justice to what I wrote. It really was good.

I am doing this on my iPad, then I have to email it to Joan Beall, then she has to mail it me, then I can copy it and put it in Paddy. I prefer just doing it on the computer because there I can type it. On the iPad, I have to type with one finger. Oh well, here goes.

I was saying: Napoleon wanted to do this but needed money for his Russia campaign and gave it up. In the end of the 1800’s, a Frenchman approached
the Pasha of Egypt about a canal between the Med and the Red sea using some lakes that already existed. Also this man had discovered that unlike the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which have a 13 feet difference in sea level; the Med and the Red seas are the same level. That means Suez does not have to have locks; but is just a series of troughs that connect the lakes and the two seas.

The canal runs about 250 miles from Port Said in the south to Suez in the north. In the canal, it is only about 600feet wide. You can always see the shores. Ships must go through the canal in single file in a convoy with the lead ship having an Egyptian pilot. There are some areas where a ship could get out of the convoy if it had a problem. Queen Mary 2 led our convoy. Some people said we were first because we are the “largest ship in the world”; others say it because our fee to transit was about $600,000 – and you have to “prepay”.

Because of the sandstorm that I talked about the other day, we didn’t enter the canal until 11am. I was glad because we were suppose to enter at 8am; and Mass was scheduled for 8:30am but I got to see the whole transit.
There are three transits each day – two South (one at midnight and another at 6pm) and one North (usually 8am).

It was very enjoyable to sit on the deck and just watch the land go by. On the left, which is Egypt, the land is full of green spaces because of irrigation. There are lots of towns and villages. On the right, which is also Egypt – but the Sinai desert – and the scene of much fighting during the 6 day war – it is very developed and is still full of military material and sights.

There are two bridges on the canal. One is new and very high. The drive up to it is 4 miles on each side and is very steep. The other is a train bridge that folds back to the shores and comes out twice a day and joins in the center of the canal. There are also very tall electric wires that cross. Lastly, on both sides there are ferries that take cars, trucks, and people to both sides. Mecca is on the right and many people go there in pilgrimage. I don’t think I’d use them. The trucks were loaded up about 5 containers high.

We passed a couple of ships that were over in those “bypass” areas. It turns out that 3 ships went aground during that sandstorm. Fortunately, the pilot had taken them out of the main canal when the storm came up. It didn’t seem to slow things.

We arrived in Suez around 5pm. It is a good size town and of course, there were lots of freighters and other ships waiting at anchor. We arrived in the Med after an almost 6hour transit. For me, it has been the high point of the trip. I especially liked that as we were passing another of those “bypasses” I saw a ship seeming to “sail” through the desert because of the sand blocking the sight of the waterway. It was that picture that ended the movie, “Suez” with Tyrone Powers, where they showed a ship sailing through the sand. I knew, even though I was maybe 10 years of age, that one day I wanted to go through the Suez Canal. Now, it’s off my “Bucket List”

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.