The Blue Water Rally boats made their way through the Suez Canal, a calm process after the boisterous Red Sea ... two days of motoring and only paying attention a bit to stay out of the way of traffic, including loaded tankers. The next scheduled rally stop was Agios Nikolaos, on Crete. As expected, this became the finale for the rally, as most boats were not pushing on to Gibraltar in the following two months. It was sad to leave all our friends on the other rally boats. We partied hard to try to ease the pain.
The Suez Canal is visually less interesting than the Panama Canal, as it is basically a ditch cut through the desert, all at sea level. Once in a while though, you do have to avoid a fully-loaded monster coming the other way, drawing 52 feet! This one was in one of the wider sections.
In the Suez Canal you stop at a lake half-way through. We paused for a day there, to try for better weather once we popped out into the Med. Our final skippers' meeting was held on the dock next to ARAGORN to make sure we all knew the weather picture.
Dick is trying to read aloud to rush the group to the lunch party?
In parts the local Egyptians use the canal for fishing and transportation, in more traditonal craft:
Check out those sails! The same sailcloth provider as in Indonesia?
J160 CONDOR makes a more modern impression as she powers by.
Leaving the Canal and going to Crete was a sad time too, as we had to say goodbye to many of our wonderful cruising friends we had made on the Blue Water Rally.
Elise hardens up for Turkey, skipping the party in Crete due to time pressures. (We did see them again in Bodrum, fortunately for us.)
On the dock in Crete, we celebrated our arrival, and the conclusion of the Rally, with champagne ..... 
Leslie, Carolyn (NADEMIA), Alistair (NADEMIA), Thor (BRIET), Jane (ISHTAR), Jane(again), Amanda (OCEAN SONG), Murray (OCEAN SONG), and Peter (ISHTAR) in these two photos.
After many parties and goodbyes, we left our friends on the rally in Crete, and sailed to Bodrum, Turkey... for another chapter in the Cruising of ARAGORN.
Copyright 2005, Richard William York