full ahead both engines!

engineering feat by human is as vast as the eyes can see. i am lucky to be one of the fortunate people to transit from the red sea to the mediteranean sea through the suez canal. indeed ,the canal was an engineering feat when it was built in the early 1900’s.

what makes it possible to connect the two seas are the lakes in between them, lake timsah and great bitter lake. the ships transitting both end are bound in convoy, northbound and southbound. the northbound convoy entering from red sea and gulf of suez. from the chart we can see the historical mount musa: jabal musa, which i can’t differentiate any. this is because the coastline is just rocky mountains and no vegetation. talk about durian plantation to those people.

oil platforms are built right in the middle of the suez gulf and there is a traffic separation scheme dividing the traffic. arrival at suez(or suweis) ,vessel needed to anchor just waiting for the orders for the convoy.

anchor aweigh entering the convoy. normally the tankers are destined to be at the rear of the convoy. we will start at daybreak because the northbound convoy will anchor at great bitter lake awaiting the southbound convoy to pass. the traffic is one way only.

the canal transit takes total about 12 hours before arriving at port said. along the canal,maintenance works are always being carried out to maintain the depth, remember that the canal runs through total sand. there are army outpost everywhere along the canal. this is because egypt used to be at war with israel : the six day war to get the control of the canal. to be continued

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