The Maersk Edirne had made it to the Port Said Anchorage last night, just before 9pm, allowing it to drop anchor for a few hours. Then at just before 11.30pm it was off again, towards the Suez Canal stretch of the journey.
Wikipedia has some fascinating facts about the Canal:
As of July 2015, the canal was too narrow for free two-way traffic, so ships pass in convoys and they use bypasses. The by-passes are 78 km (48 mi) out of 193 km (120 mi) (40%). From north to south, they are: Port Said by-pass (entrances) 36.5 km (23 mi), Ballah by-pass & anchorage, 9 km (6 mi), Timsah by-pass 5 km (3 mi), and the Deversoir by-pass (northern end of the Great Bitter Lake) 27.5 km (17 mi). The bypasses were completed in 1980.
Typically, it takes a ship 12 to 16 hours to transit the canal. The canal’s 24-hour capacity is about 76 standard ships.
Since the canal does not cater to unregulated two-way traffic, all ships transit in convoys on regular times, scheduled on a 24-hour basis. Each day, a single northbound convoy starts at 04:00 from Suez. At dulka lane sections, the convoy uses the eastern route. Synchronised with this convoy’s passage is the southbound convoy. It starts at 03:30 from Port Said and so passes the Northbound convoy in the two-lane section
We will update you tomorrow, hopefully with news that the ship has passed the Canal and is now out the other side.
Tuesday 12th December