Graptolite - Canal Trip
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Sun 7 Jun 2009 07:00
After being told we couldn't leave Suez until Sunday we set to work doing
some repairs then on Saturday afternoon we got one hours notice to take on a
pilot and go.
Naturally it was not easy and by the time we got to the Great Bitter Lake
the Egyptian Army had had time to throw a floating bridge across the canal
ahead of us. There was lots of shouting. By the early hours of this morning
we were moored in Ismalia where we are once more waiting for a pilot for the
run up to Port Said and freedom.
The Suez Canal has coincidentally played a bit-part in my own family
history. Most recently was my dad's military adventures in Malaya that took
him and fellow squaddies this way in the 1950's. In 1916 my
great-grandfather Joe had a one-way trip through here to Mesopotamia to
machine-gun some Turks who very unsportingly shot back. And as early as 1915
my great-uncle Reg of the East Lancs Regiment was in the area also fighting
off Turks. The Turks at that time were attempting a hostile takeover of the
Suez Canal Company.
Of course, the canal wouldn't even be here at all if it wasn't for
great-great uncle Ferdinand whose steadfast refusal in 1854 to admit a
mistake with the coordinates turned a small drainage ditch project in
Zululand into a major seaway in Egypt. More lies obviously.
M