Heading to the Suez Canal Part 1 - some photos near the start of our journey

We are finally in the Mediterranean Sea, after a long, very slow transit through the 100 mile-long Suez Canal and the waterways that led up to it. Our speed was about 7 knots, while in open seas it is generally about 20-22 knots. 

Much of our journey in the canal was along new sections of the canal, built around 2003, I believe. So anyone who sailed through the canal before then will not recognise the views shown in my photos. For most of the way all you could see were huge hills of sand, placed there not by nature, but by those who constructed the new canals to let more ships pass through per day. Those travelling west to east sail along the old canal and those travelling east to west sail along the new canals, all in convoy. Apparently you see a lot more on the original canal. 

All the ships have to anchor outside until given permission to travel through. We started moving around 2 am. By chance I woke up at 4 am so managed to take a night picture of the part of that voyage in a canal before we entered the Suez Canal itself. I am afraid I am a bit hazy on the geography, as we did not have a map to check where we were, which was somewhat frustrating. 

I gather that for much of the way along the Suez Canal, the Sinai desert was on our right as we looked forward (the starboard side) and Egypt was on our left (the port side). Egypt earns billions of dollars each year from the canal, though it has had a checkered history.

   

Fortunately it was a sunny day with less haze than usual by mid-morning, probably due to the winds. So a large number of passengers were out on deck to see the sights, such as they were. 

I will divide my commentary in three, as there are too many photos for just one post. And at the moment I have poor satellite coverage.

These two photos were taken using my phone, one at 4.15 am and the next at 5.30 am. I have no idea where I was at the time, but it was clearly a canal.

Apparently the green rectangles are barges that can be easily launched and connected to make a bridge, so we were told. Notice the long fence. There was kilometre after kilometre of fencing with observation  posts along most of the length of the canals.