Going through the Straits of Hormuz and into the gulf of Adan and then into the Red Sea towards the gulf of Aqaba.
Going through the Suez canal takes a long time.
There are 2 parts of the Suez canal. The first part was when we were still asleep. Those that got up early saw the end of the first part. Then we got into the " bitter lakes" or the wide part . Later on that narrowed down again and into the second part of the longer Suez Canal.
Here a bit from Wikipedia"
The Suez Canal (Arabic: قناة السويس qanāt as-suwēs) is a sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. Constructed by the Suez Canal Company between 1859 and 1869, it was officially opened on 17 November 1869. The canal offers watercraft a more direct route between the North Atlantic and northern Indian oceans via the Mediterranean and Red seas, thus avoiding the South Atlantic and southern Indian oceans and thereby reducing the journey distance from the Arabian Sea to, for example, London by approximately 8,900 kilometres (5,500 mi).[1] It extends from the northern terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez. Its length is 193.30 km (120.11 mi), including its northern and southern access channels. In 2012, 17,225 vessels traversed the canal (an average of 47 per day).[2]
The original canal was a single-lane waterway with passing locations in the Ballah Bypass and the Great Bitter Lake.[3] It contains no locks system, with seawater flowing freely through it. In general, the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. South of the lakes, the current changes with the tide at Suez.[4]
The Canal was owned by the United Kingdom and France until 1956 when Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized it, an event which led to the Suez Crisis.[5] The canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority[6] (SCA) of Egypt. Under the Convention of Constantinople, it may be used "in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag".[7]
In August 2014, construction was launched to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass for 35 km (22 mi) to speed the canal's transit time. The expansion was planned to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day.[8] At a cost of $8.4 billion, this project was funded with interest-bearing investment certificates issued exclusively to Egyptian entities and individuals. The "New Suez Canal", as the expansion was dubbed, was opened with great fanfare in a ceremony on 6 August 2015.[9]
On 24 February 2016, the Suez Canal Authority officially opened the new side channel. This side channel, located at the northern side of the east extension of the Suez Canal, serves the East Terminal for berthing and unberthing vessels from the terminal. As the East Container Terminal is located on the Canal itself, before the construction of the new side channel it was not possible to berth or unberth vessels at the terminal while the convoy was running.[10]"
We sailed underneath the Mubarak Peace Bridge.
"The Mubarak Peace Bridge, also known as the Egyptian-Japanese Friendship Bridge, Al Salam Bridge, or Al Salam Peace Bridge, is a road bridge crossing the Suez Canal at El-Qantara, whose name means "the bridge" in Arabic. The bridge links the continents of Africa and Asia."
It now doesn't allow " normal" traffic, only government or army are allowed over it, because of the risks of people like Isis who are located on the Sinai peninsula.
It certainly was an amazing experience to see everything from the ship on both sides.
Here are the photos on the link below:
Once we came through, with hot weather most of the transit time, we were suddenly greeted with cold wind from the Med and different weather. Whilst we were going through the Canal, the weather had been very hot.
During this time of 5 days at Sea, there were pool games and Neptune game and every night we had a show onboard in the theatre.
Our next stop was going to be : Cyprus.
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