Four hours at anchor and Amber is on her way. Ahead is a vessel owned by ZIM, an Israeli shipping firm.
South of the Great Bitter Lake, the canal passes a few vacation resorts. This is looking west.
I step out, but, heightened by the metal deck, the heat is appalling.
Inside, Denis has a commanding view of the next vessel, 1.6 nautical miles ahead. Take that, you passengers struggling for the best vantage points on snazzy cruise ships!
This picture is for Yehoram - friend and former cameraman - who fought in the Israeli Army in '67 and '73. What looked to be some abandoned Egyptian military equipment.
The army post below - with a rather odd decorative scheme and wall painting of a prancing soldier holding an Egyptian flag - is one of many military installations. There are watchtowers, tank training grounds and lots of bored-looking conscripts.
Port Suez is the southern exit.
Here's the Red Sea Hotel, which I doubt will ever have me as a patron.
Beside the mosque are colonial buildings from the French era. As we pass, the muezzin's call to prayer sounds across town, onto the starboard wing and faintly through an open door into the wheelhouse.
Speaking of the French, another CMA CGM ship is astern.
At Port Suez, having completed an extraordinarily long personal telephone conversation, the pilot departs.
He takes three cartons of Marlboros, the Suez form of baksheesh. There was a pilot for each of three different canal sections: 3 X 3 = 9 cartons of Marlboros @ $17.99 a carton (ship's duty free price) = $161.91. Pilots sell the American cigarettes at considerable profit. Seafarers call it the 'Marlboro Canal' or 'Marlboro Country'.
Fifteen-and-a-half hours from the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Suez. In 1895, the average transit time for the canal was 16 hours 18 minutes. (National Geographic July, 1896)
