Day 3 at Sea......Are we there yet?

Enjoyed another comfortable sleep, and got up in time to have breakfast prior to the "Pirate Drill"   I was somewhat surprised when we got onboard and they handed us a letter detailing the "Pirate Precautions" that we would be taking once we got past our day in Jordan. Here's a copy to read...

Basically, everyone needs to turn off outdoor lights, and won't be allowed on the outer decks after dark.  Not a big deal I think, as I can still go out on my balcony if I need some air for some reason.  Anyway, back to the Pirate Drill - they basically read the letter out loud, in 3 languages, so if the Captain comes on the intercom and says "Safe Haven" we are all supposed to go into the interior of the ship.  Since we didn't get much more direction than that, the chances seem tiny that we'll have any real issues.....More to come once we get past Aqaba.

This afternoon we attended a lecture about the building of the Suez Canal and how it is run, the fees, and the maintenence required to keep it from silting up.  Some fun facts.....

- The average ship pays $260k US to transit the canal, it varies on the time you wish to wait and the tonnage of the ship

- Most recently, the canal was widened in 2010 to 50 meters wide and 26 meters deep.  Ships are allowed with a draft of no more than 22 meters.  This keeps erosion of the channel down

- The Suez Canal is 192 km long, and traffic can only go one way at a time in a convoy.  The ships pass in the Bitter Lakes.

Let's hope I remembered these facts correctly from the lecture, as I wasn't actually smart enough to write anything down......!

Dinner was good, we ended up with a different waiter due to the time we arrived and he wasn't as awesome as our previous waiter, Joey, so I think we'll request him when we get back from Egypt.  Since we have to meet our guide at 7am tomorrow for our drive to Cairo, we made it an early evening and packed up a few things for our overnight trip.