20 April 2011; Port Said, Egypt.

The challenge with Port Said is, is that there are two traffic streams going in and out.  One for going into the port itself;  and one for going through the canal. As the voyage through the canal is made in convoy they block any arrival and departures for the port during that period. That puts me in the awkward situation that if we leave late from the previous port; that we might arrive late here and if we then miss the arrival slot, then we have to wait about 4 hours.  That plays havoc with the tours of course, while at the same time it is are the previous tours that created the delay.  However this morning, we were nicely on time and also the pilot came out at correct the time and at the position agreed. Behind us the convoy was already assembling and the first ship of the convoy was told to be lined at 05.00.By this time it was expected that the Prinsendam was at her berth and out of the fairway. That berth is on the cabal bank.  In the old days the passenger ships would dock here on the mooring buoys and then the passengers would be shuttled ashore by local boats.  Not too long ago they put in three T piers with some dolphins so that the visitors can walk ashore directly.  The mooring buoys are still there for head and stern lines if needed. They are optimum for a ship of about 150 meters for the perfect setup of the mooring ropes, but for the Prinsendam it works as well.

 The good old days. A Rotterdam lloyd Steamer on the buoys. The RL was a dutch cmpany that sailed from Rotterdam to the Dutch East Indies. (From my private postcard collection)

The approach is fairly simple. Sail parallel along the buoys which are 300 meters apart and when in between wriggle the ship in until you are alongside. For this wriggling the ship is assisted by two line boats to bring the mooring lines ashore. They do that in quite a loud way; the crew continuously yelling for cigarettes. And there is an undefined tugboat milling around which seems to be there on port orders.  They had added a number of bollards since I had been there last time and that made it a bit easier to create a nice spread of lines to keep the ship in position. In the mean time a complete market was erected at the shore side, starting with three stone pavilions and then a whole double line of market stalls. Everybody going on and off the ship would have to run the “shopping” gauntlet. At the same time we were joined by two fire engines and an ambulance.   It looked like that all possibilities had been covered by the authorities. In the old days the dock area was just a sandy beach with some ware houses and the custom shacks but with the population explosion in Egypt during the last 20 years,  the apartment buildings are now towering over the dock area.

The new T piers with the begining of the souvenir market on the top left.

We were docked by 05.45 while our official arrival time was not until 08.00 hrs but the convoy window demanded this early arrival. At least the tours would now be able to leave on time and those tours were going to be my main worry for the day as they always return late. Even if you send them out very early, they still come back late.  By 18.30 my worries became reality. The overland tour, scheduled to return at 1700 hrs pulled in at 18.30 hrs. That did not bode very well for the other tours scheduled for a 19.30 return.  

And it was not to be.  We were waiting for five buses and the last bus broke down. Luckily this seems to be a regular issue here in Egypt so a back up bus was available and the extra delay limited to 10 minutes.  Then when all guests were back, a guest found out that she had left her passport on the bus.  Again luckily the bus was not that far away but it caused another delay. Then because we had to wait for this passport, we lost the pilot slot and we had to wait another 15 minutes for the next pilot to be available.  All in all it was not until 21.08 hrs that we pulled off the dock while our departure was set for 20.00 hrs.  The night convoy for the canal was gathering at 21.00 hrs but not coming in until 22.00 hrs so we were lucky there.  If the delay had taken longer the ship would have been stuck until 0400 in the morning.  So also very lucky was the guest who forgot the passport ;  I could not have gone to Israel without that passport  and the only option would have been to disembark the guest and had her re join the ship in Israel complete with her passport.  Still that additional delay will cost me a few thousand dollars extra on fuel, as I have to make my time slot for Ashdod. 

The Israeli Navy is very closely following all shipping movements along the coast and gets very unhappy when we do not show up at our announced time of arrival. I have to be at the pilot station at 06.00 and to be docked at 07.00 hrs so it will be warp speed again for the whole night.  Still the weather forecast for tomorrow indicates once again cool and dry weather so perfect for sightseeing.

 Roving reporter Lesley Schoonderbeek escorted today a new tour. Pyramids and a very luxurious luncheon cruise on the Nile. During the lunch there were performances by a belly dancer.