Our transit of the Suez Canal was, in some ways was symbolic, leaving the Mediterranean’s western world culture , and entering the Arabic world of the Red Sea, with a noticeable change in culture on route.
During the transit ,the shear scale of 2041’s mission becomes apparent, one small sailing boat campaigning for sustainable energy and the preservation of Antarctica, moving against a constant stream of large container ships and oil tankers, with names such as “Antarctic gas” and “Antarctic Breaker”.
Normally the trip should have taken only two days, but then nothing happens the way it really should here in Egypt, a non-show of our Pilot had us hanging around for another day, mid way through the canal in “Ismalia”.
Ismalia is the half way point crossing the Canal, situated in the
ancient “Bitter lakes”. It took us six hours of motoring along the canal from the northern port of Said, with the sands of the “Sini” on the left and the farmland of the Nile Delta on the right, the passage is easy enough through the heavily secured canal, with lookout post at regular intervals, tank crossings and various other military hard ware scattered sporadically, photography and fishing is band, but the local seem to ignore the latter, zig zagging the canal in their old wooden boats carried by the zephyrs of wind in their patchwork sails.
Sadly we said farewell to Fiona, a volunteer crew member, who has sailed with us since Malta, but she leaves her message with us to carry, “We all can change a little for a better life”
We now sit in Suez, awaiting some final paperwork, and then we head south, in to a hostile environment, with few and far between safe havens, but the crew sense the call of the ocean breeze, and we eagerly await to stretch are sailing sheets and fill our lifeless sails with the power of nature.
The Captain
