Transiting the Suez Canal is now a rarely followed path by circumnavigating yachts. The threat of piracy around the Gulf of Aden has long been a concern: British cruisers Paul and Rachel Chandler were famously kidnapped — and held for over a year before their safe release– by Somali pirates in 2009.

Although the danger posed by Somali pirates has lessened considerably since attacks peaked between 2000-2011, more recent attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen on Red Sea cargo ships with apparent links to the US, UK and Israel have once again made the situation high risk, with activity escalating since the end of 2023.

Yacht owners heading to Europe westbound from Asia have two sailing options: to double the Cape of Good Hope, or to pass through the Suez Canal (the alternative is to have their yacht transported). Billion-dollar shipping companies with cargo vessels of hundreds of thousands of deadweight tonnes have opted for the former to avoid the dangers of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea. The equation is different for small yachts.

Reasons to transit the Suez Canal

At the outset of their four or five-year circumnavigation, Greetje Tops, co-owner of the 33ft Dutch-registered Bermudan sloop Black Moon, envisaged she and her partner Niels would return to the Netherlands via Suez.

News of the Houthi attacks reached them in Indonesia. A long route via Cape Town would have meant staying longer in Asia to prepare. But refitting the boat and an additional year of travelling would come with a price. It would be a long time to live on what Tops describes as a small boat.

Did they really have time to go round the Cape – or should they continue with their original planned route? “Basically we followed our gut feeling,” explains Tops. “Everyone was saying you can’t cross at this moment. When we started [cruising] everyone said Covid was too dangerous. Let’s find out for ourselves.”

An estimated 50-60 yachts crossed the Suez Canal in 2023 and 2024, down from a peak of 75 in 2019. Photo: SV Black Moon

The couple opted to make the northbound transit in a small convoy of around four yachts in April this year. Despite unfavourable winds delaying their total passage time to nearly six weeks from Djibouti, after five stopovers in Sudan and six in Egypt, they arrived safely in Europe in mid-May.

The crucial piece of advice they say for planning a Suez transit is to prepare as far in advance as possible. Black Moon made initial contact with an Egyptian canal agent while still in Thailand and communication was kept up for months.

Reasons not to transit the Suez Canal

Conversely, American Saskia Stainer-Hutchins and her husband Ross Rodrigues, currently cruising the Indian Ocean islands with their Lagoon 46 Acushnet, decided not to transit Suez this year. Of all the information sources that informed their decision-making, they found the Red Sea Passage Facebook group the most useful (anyone considering the passage should seek it out, it’s a private group but details of how to contact administrator Wade Alarie can be found on Noonsite).

: the southern end of the Suez Canal from the Gulf of Suez north to the Great Bitter Lake. Photo: Tsado/Alamy

News of Houthi attacks can easily be followed on social media (though check your sources’ veracity) and Stainer-Hutchins has also been keenly following the security update pages of the Western military websites. Latest regulations are usually to be found on the cruising guide website Noonsite. Stainer-Hutchins also points to Sailing Zatara’s channel on YouTube as a handy video guide to Suez.

“We connected with lots of other sailors considering the passage,” she recalls. “And we talked to three sailors who had done the passage recently.” They also spoke to agents in Djibouti and Saudi Arabia while mulling their decision.

Safety

The Suez canal is not a high risk area itself. For westbound cruisers, from the Gulf of Aden towards Djibouti requires transiting a high piracy risk area. The entire coast of Yemen is also to be avoided, and it’s not possible to safely stop in Eritrea.

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In Djibouti Black Moon found an agent who could fix port entry in Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Owing to long passage distances in the area it is necessary to fix port of entry paperwork in those two countries well in advance.

The US-led naval coalition protecting merchant shipping in the Red Sea will monitor yachts on passage through the area. Black Moon emailed (via Iridium satellite) the military liaison daily at 0800 UTC, relaying vessel location and number of crew aboard.

In Sudan, still far from Suez, the Black Moon crew said they felt reassured: coalition warplanes and an aircraft carrier – on the border of the high risk area – were visible.From Jeddah it’s another 600 miles to get to the Gulf of Suez. This area is all deemed safe in terms of armed conflict.

Greetje Tops and partner Niels Eikelboom on Black Moon with their Suez Canal pilot (centre). Photo: SV Black Moon

Weather

Sandstorms are often an issue. In fact the lasting memory of many yacht owners who have passed through the Red Sea is the rust-coloured Saharan sand blown into their sails – and indeed everywhere else. It pays to avoid forecasted sandstorms, although any wind here will carry sand. Black Moon faced northerlies, and steep waves with an interval of only a few seconds.

For the canal itself no extra safety precautions need be taken. Assuming yachts arriving in Suez will have crossed the Indian Ocean, crews will have taken measures against common safety threats there. As soon as Black Moon left the Maldives there were many encounters with fishing boats approaching without hailing.

They carried pepper spray, a flashlight designed to stun would-be attackers, together with a selection of tools which could serve as a weapon if the situation demanded. It goes without saying a functional VHF was necessary for emergency calls, along with an Iridium sat phone with emergency contacts on speed dial.

Pilot boat at the port of Suez. Photo: SV Black Moon

On the canal

In Suez you’ll need to meet your transit agent. One of the most popular is Captain Heebi, known as ‘the Prince of the Red Sea’ (also his email address). At this point in their passage, Black Moon reported they felt reassured they’d decided to keep in contact with him since Thailand. They’d registered the ship’s papers for the Suez transit online and answered what Greetje describes as a ‘great many’ advance questions.

A second important point they raise is that you don’t need to undergo immigration clearance while passing through Egypt: Black Moon was in transit in the customs sense as well as the nautical sense. Populous, developing countries have large, complex bureaucracies: Egypt is no exception. Rules are deep within books running to hundreds of pages and signs all in Arabic. Cigarettes and cash dollars can be a useful tool of persuasion, although backhanders are not to be condoned and should be approached with extreme caution. “One tiny misstep and you have a big fine,” warns Greetje.

Without clearing immigration, crew of transiting yachts are not permitted to swim, use a tender, or go ashore. Taking shortcuts to dodge the waves in the Gulf of Suez could land you with a big fine because in every port, bay or village, there’s an Egyptian army base.

Black Moon on the approach to Suez. Photo: SV Black Moon

Permitted anchorages will be explained but if you don’t follow the rules and anchor somewhere else, then the army will come out and come to your boat. “They can be quite hostile,” Greetje recalls. “[They] asked for our original boat papers. We gave them copies and pretended they were the originals. They put them in their pockets and went off.” She believes it was a lure to get them to go ashore, whereupon they’d be fined for breaching immigration rules.

The couple contacted Captain Heebi, based in Port Said, from Suez and he supplied guidance for the next steps. When you arrive in Suez, you take a mooring. The agent comes to collect money and finalise paperwork. Then a pilot comes on board via a pilot boat.

Motoring through

Diesel is available in Suez and Ismailia. Most yachts won’t need to fill up along the canal itself, however, owing to its length. In the permitted anchorages local boats can assist with diesel and groceries. Prices for these services are not reported to be extortionate.

The actual canal itself is approximately 80 miles in distance. A sailing yacht can only transit the waterway under engine during daylight hours. With an average production cruiser this is not possible in a single day. The pilot takes over the wheel to motor to the halfway point of Ismailia. Though yacht owners should be aware that not all pilots have experience in handling yachts, Black Moon says their pilot was extremely competent.

The pilot departs at Port Said at the Mediterranean end of the canal. Photo: SV Black Moon

The midpoint city of Ismailia is located after the passage through Great Bitter Lake. Moorings are available for boats who need to wait before continuing on to Port Said (big ships go straight through). There are shallows throughout the length of the canal, not just near the southern entrance where the Ever Given notoriously lodged itself on the bank.

There is a marina in Ismailia, classified as part of the canal territory and available for transiting boaters. Crew of yachts passing through can use the showers and shop. They can also visit other boats. Venturing beyond the marina bounds, however, is classified as entry to Egypt, and attracts hefty fines.

Yachts need permission of customs control to leave Ismailia, and embarkation must be carried out with the pilot aboard. The US$10,000 penalty attached to perceived breaches of this rule gives you an idea of how seriously the Egyptians police this, as well as the general tariff scale of the fines.

Keeping watch during transit. Photo: SV Black Moon

Mediterranean entry

Black Moon waited three nights in Ismailia for a weather window. Their pilot then came to the marina and they embarked on the final section of canal towards Port Said – a ‘less eventful’ passage, according to Greetje. The pilot disembarked at Port Said marina (VHF Ch12) with a little extra money and cigarettes before Black Moon proceeded straight to Crete.

The most common route avoiding entry into Egypt and heading into the Mediterranean is to Cyprus. For Black Moon, the weather was right to head the longer distance to Crete. Owing to weather delays in the Red Sea the couple found themselves arriving – safely – in Europe in a warmer time of year than originally anticipated.

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