Port Suez – Egypt to Ashkelon – Israel
SHAMAL has completed just over 21,000nm and we have reached the Mediterranean
Hello again.
Haven’t we done well. It really is a great feeling to have come this far. Looking back on the trip to date we really have had a wonderful time. No complaints, and SHAMAL has behaved so well and given us a very comfortable trip. She is a great little home. Everyone we have met to date, particularly those with catamarans, and who have come on board have been most impressed on how much Seawind has put into a boat of this length.
The Suez Canal
In Port Suez before we transited the Canal, every boat has to be measured up as a fee has to be paid for the privilege of using the Canal. The Suez Canal Authority [SCA] come on board your boat and physical measure the dimensions. A very complex formula which we are quite sure they themselves do not even understand. It comes from the 1888 Constantinople International Tonnage Convention!!!! It does not recognise that yachts have fin keels so this makes for some very interesting outcomes. We were measured up one day, and the next day a different guy came back apologising profusely that it had all been done wrong and did it again. That worked out well as in the second measure up we shrunk and so did the price!!! This was partly due to the fact that the guy got Alec to hold the other end of the tape. He also got Alec to measure the engine room size as this was to be deducted from the total volume. Our total bill came to US$335 which included the fee for the two pilots that one must have. You change pilots at the half way point. We paid US$225 for the Canal fee, $50 Agent fees, $40 Port Clearance and $20 for two passports.
