Our morning began with a fair amount of frustration as we were promised an early departure at 9.30am from the marina in Port Suez. We were forced to sit on the deck of Pangaea and soak up the morning sun as we not only had to await the arrival of a pilot to direct us, we had to contend with a long list of Egyptian officials who continually tried to extract more money out of us. We finally left at 1.00pm and for the first part of our journey up the Suez we sailed closely on the opposite side of a convoy of no less than 25 ships. I managed to hoist myself above the spreader bar on the main mast, where I took these photos of the canal and the landscape on either side and some spectacular views of the passing ships. We are forced to make the journey through to Port Said in two days and will thus be anchoring at the halfway point of El Isma’iliya