Jill B
The roaming Aussie
Day 29: after calm sailing today, we are at anchor along with a lot of other ships awaiting our turn to go through Suez Canal. Next morning we were up early and out on deck at 6.30am, but not quite early enough to see us enter the canal. We were the second vessel in a convoy of 32 ships heading north. Very dry here, and the sky was hazy with dust. We had a travel expert on board who gave commentary about all points of interest that we passed, so we learned a lot.
We entered Great Bitter Lake, then the canal split in two - the west side is the old canal and the east is the new cut. We took the east, and could see ships in the west canal heading south. Later the 2 canals merged into one again.
We sailed under a large bridge, the friendship bridge between Egypt and Japan. Around 2pm we glided into the Mediterranean Sea, 2 more days at sea before we reached Malta.
Laying on a deck chair near the pool, under a blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds, temperature around 25 C (77 F) sailing smoothly across the Mediterranean................ahhhhh
At 6.15pm we had a welcome to the Mediterranean party with free drinks and dancing, this is the life!
Day 33: Valletta, Malta. The harbour is beautiful with ancient fortified walls and buildings. We took a tour, "Easy island drive" which was mostly interesting. Some of the city streets were so narrow we thought the bus would scrape the buildings.
Sailaway at 6.30pm; to get out of the harbour our ship had to make a fairly tight "S" bend which was great to watch. Some silly twits in a dinghy were in front of us and the captain had to use the foghorn a few times to get out of our way.
Next 2 ports, Barcelona and Cadiz, Spain.
Ship behind us in Suez Canal
Landscape along the canal.
Suez Canal, Friendship Bridge.
Valletta, Malta. You can just see the nose of Sea Princess poking out in the top right of the photo.
Small fishing boats
Valletta.
We have to get through the narrow space. You can see the little dinghy that was in danger of being run over by our big ship. Silly people.
We entered Great Bitter Lake, then the canal split in two - the west side is the old canal and the east is the new cut. We took the east, and could see ships in the west canal heading south. Later the 2 canals merged into one again.
We sailed under a large bridge, the friendship bridge between Egypt and Japan. Around 2pm we glided into the Mediterranean Sea, 2 more days at sea before we reached Malta.
Laying on a deck chair near the pool, under a blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds, temperature around 25 C (77 F) sailing smoothly across the Mediterranean................ahhhhh
At 6.15pm we had a welcome to the Mediterranean party with free drinks and dancing, this is the life!
Day 33: Valletta, Malta. The harbour is beautiful with ancient fortified walls and buildings. We took a tour, "Easy island drive" which was mostly interesting. Some of the city streets were so narrow we thought the bus would scrape the buildings.
Sailaway at 6.30pm; to get out of the harbour our ship had to make a fairly tight "S" bend which was great to watch. Some silly twits in a dinghy were in front of us and the captain had to use the foghorn a few times to get out of our way.
Next 2 ports, Barcelona and Cadiz, Spain.
Ship behind us in Suez Canal
Landscape along the canal.
Suez Canal, Friendship Bridge.
Valletta, Malta. You can just see the nose of Sea Princess poking out in the top right of the photo.
Small fishing boats
Valletta.
We have to get through the narrow space. You can see the little dinghy that was in danger of being run over by our big ship. Silly people.
