Transiting Suez Canal now

Into the Gulf of Suez


We had a 9 am mtg so I set the wake up call for 8 am. Though we were both awake long before then, it still wasn’t fun getting up.
Health Check
Since Ed has signed us up for another Chef’s dinner, we had to appear to be sure we understood the rules. For example, no open toed shoes, must wear a lab coat while in the galley, must wash our hands on the way into the galley and sing Happy Birthday, to ourselves if we wish, twice as we wash our hands. There is a video on the ship’s channel that reviews the handwashing procedure at regular intervals. So I guess we passed! Whoopie!
Port Talk: Suez Canal
I’ve heard other port talks about the Canal and have transited it twice before, but I learned so many new facts about the Canal. I never knew there is a 2 lane tunnel under the canal, joining Egypt with the Sinai peninsula, at the south entrance. There is a swing bridge which I may have seen but forgotten. Many of the little towns along the way were new to me—at least what I recall. 50 ships a day transit this crucial waterway. Oil tankers who are too tall can off load some of their oil into a barge which follows them through the canal, and then take it back on at the opposite end.
Trivia
Those taking the dance classes had champagne right before Trivia so they may not have been as sharp as we’d expect. Our team again was one point below the winners. I think the teams must be pretty well matched since this is often the case and not just with our team. Occasionally one team will blow the others away but it’s rare. And the winning team changes a lot and is certainly not a given. The afternoon session was awful with questions that defy description. Perhaps it’s the staff’s revenge for our (meaning that all of us are responsible for how all the trivia players behave) behavior. We lost this afternoon; our score was 9, the winning team got 10. The team who’s quiz we graded got 3. That tells you what it was like!
Mother’s Day/Sunday Brunch
The Commendetore put together the big Happy Mother’s Day display by himself and it was gorgeous. He just used stuff available on the ship: wine glasses, red covered chocolates, serpentine, balloons, and an enormous cake the pastry chef made which is likely not edible. The decorations inside were ice carvings and the ones made with fruits and vegetables. Many of them were of a mother and child.
Afternoon project
I was toying with the idea of submitting a photo for this segment’s contest where I have put monkeys around Ed in our cabin. I borrowed Chuck’s Mac and spent the whole afternoon trying to get it where it looked seamless. Eventually I decided not to spend more time on it. I don’t have the documentation to help me over some of the hurdles, and the handouts from the computer class are often absent the little side things you want to achieve. And finally, my neck and shoulders were hurting and so it became clear to me that this was not something I should be doing. Fortunately there wasn’t anything compelling this afternoon; Estelle Harris was talking about her life again and the book club was meeting about Nicholas Sparks’ book “The Choice” which I had read before we came on board.
I was checking out the computer classes to audit and there were none this morning and only one this afternoon that I had taken before and I couldn’t deal with auditing it one more time. Of course, just wait until I try it on my own with my own photo and I may be sorry I didn’t try to embed those little traces in my brain yet one more time.
Dinner
All present. JoAnn’s ankle is up and down. Of course, she walked Petra yesterday with it wrapped in Ace bandages and it’s getting back at her today. We laughed about some odd behavior on the part of fellow bus travelers, the book club discussion, and such. The dessert tonite was Cherries Jubilee so I sinned again and had some. We did talk about how going on a world cruise changes your thinking about world events. You begin to see how and why other cultures and ethnicities think as they do. Some of achieve this learning but certainly not all. Some folks are still very sure that their way is the best way for all. Wonder how they’d feel if they were on the receiving end of that attitude in their native land.
And speaking of the Petra experience, I think we are finally rehydrated. I was surprised that a little muscle that runs parallel with the tibia in the lower leg is letting me know that it was not happy with the walk yesterday. I don’t ever recall that muscle being a problem. And my plantar fasciitis (at least that’s what my MD thinks it is—it’s gone on for a year now) is not really any better though I’ve certainly been doing what I’m supposed to be doing.
Entertainment
Tom Fletcher is billed with the idea “no thinking required.” That fits this population pretty well. We saw him on the last world cruise. He’s an older guy with a booming voice and is a good joke teller. Of course, we have heard some of them before but it’s still fun to hear them with someone else’s twist to it. And he put JJ into some of them which was great fun since we are all so fond of him.
Our view over the ocean today
We can often see land on either side but the haze is such that it’s often indistinguishable. We are clearly in the Gulf of Suez and creeping along as we must transit the Suez Canal in a convoy. There isn’t enough room in many areas of the Canal for a two way passage so ships go to the Bitter Lakes and wait until the transit ships from the other direction pass on. There are two convoys from the South and only one from the North; I don’t know why.
We saw some oil rigs out in the water at several points, some huge container ships very close by, and someone claimed to have seen some dolphins though I couldn’t see them (that doesn’t mean much as folks who know my vision will understand). The weather has been hot and humid but the sun hasn’t been searing. The mountains in the distance loom as giants lying on their sides watching us sail by.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow afternoon Frankie will have the customary International White Elephant Auction. This is done at the end of the cruise so folks can get rid of those purchases that now seem incredible. The money can be kept by the person or donated to a charity of the person’s choice. This is always hilarious because you cannot imagine what people have picked up. There is a wall hanging from Phuket that we’ve seen several times that was originally purchased for $24. And there’s a red manual penis vacuum pump (I’m not making this up) which draws a lot of interest but no bids—at least none anyone is owning up to!