What a great day!! We moved into the Suez Canal early this morning, going so slowly so that we create no waves. Our ship is at the head of the convoy. The canal is interesting - green and populated on the Cairo side, desert and sparse population on the Sinai side. There are military establishments all along the way, a swing railway bridge under construction and a road bridge also under construction. It cost our ship $US1/4 million to transit. It's the 2nd larges...

Well, up early this morning for our early start to Cairo. We had breakfast at The Pavilion - they start the earliest at 6am. Got ourselves organised and up to the grand lounge only to find that the Egyptian authorities have not organised the ships in front of us, so we can't move in to the inner harbour. We are in the outer harbour, at anchor, and there are 30 knot winds which will make it difficult, if not impossible, for the tenders to operate. Will we make it ...

After a restless night we went off to breakfast - aah!! Tomato juice, raisin bran, smoked salmon omelette for me, eggs Benedict for Tom! We had arrived in Safaga - a pretty stark desert mountainous landscape where they specialise in exporting phosphates. We hopped on a shuttle bus to take us to the Holiday Inn. The entry way to the port was manned by military guards with machine guns, and the coach driver was questioned on the way in and out. At the Holiday Inn -...