Day 76 & 77 ~ A Passage to Arabia

March 26-27, 2022

59 degrees inching into the 60's

NAUTICAL TERM OF THE DAY ~ Gone by the board

This refers to anything seen to have gone overboard or spotted floating past the ship. "By the board" was considered lost at sea.

It's fascinating to watch tugs do their work. They are powerhouses in small packages, delivering harbor pilots, easing much bigger vessels into position, and generally harrying their flock of ships like an Australian sheepdog, nipping and nudging them into line.

When we aren't in port, the days sort of run together and my calendar gets a bit muddled. The Star took a day to travel from Crete to Port Said, Egypt, arriving at around 11PM, where we held station until we could be assembled into a convoy to pass through the Suez Canal. Military ships are usually first in the queue, followed by passenger vessels, then container ships. There were no military ships waiting, so the Star moved to the head of the line and we began our transit at about 3 AM.  

Since we've been attending photography classes, I'm trying to be more intentional when I snap a pic. I was really happy with this photo. Not only did I capture the moon and Venus in the inky sky, the lights of Port Said left a dancing rainbow of reflections in the still water.

We transited the Suez Canal in 2018, but then we were going from south to north. It seemed less busy this time, but that may be due to Covid. The watered west bank was dotted with green areas while the dry left bank was nothing but sand. As I remembered from the previous cruise, the desert swirled in the air currents and obscured our distant view with a brown haze.

The bright sun casts sharp shadows of palm trees on the sand.

The canal was constructed from 1859 to 1869. It would have been accomplished much earlier but for a faulty survey and some mathematical errors that made the backers believe there was a big difference in the sea levels between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. Our onboard historian told us that the idea for a canal was as old as the pharaohs, and in fact, there was a narrow canal dug from the Bitter Lakes to connect with the Nile that was used only by Egyptian royalty. 

There are a number of temporary structures that form bridges across the canal that separates Egypt on the west and the Sinai Peninsula (also part of Egypt) on the east. I'm not sure what this structure is, but the workers walking on top of it left me breathless.

On the shores of Great Bitter Lake. The water is brackish, not quite fresh and not quite salt.

I promised to let you know what was in the box left in our cabin yesterday. Those neatly wrapped packages contained our clean underwear and socks! We decided to experiment with letting Viking do some of our laundry. Nothing shrank! 

Life continues in lazy circles on the Star. We are given opportunities to learn, to read, to relax in the spa, and to be entertained in several different venues, punctuated by over-the-top culinary events. 

The chef put on a Tex-Mex brunch  during our cruising the Red Sea day. Bear in mind, all of these dishes were presented to our table of four (us and Kristy & Dave) to share between us. There was enough food for 8 or 12 people, probably more. It's a little concerning how much waste there is on the Star, but this is one time I just can't fulfill my parents' dictum to "clean your plate." 

The DH is still working on getting our last two ports of call and cruising the canal pictures uploaded into his montage. Viking's wifi continues to be inadequate to non-existent sometimes. I'll share them in a separate post as soon as he finishes them.

 

More soon...