A couple (?) of days ago I read the 24 man Indian crew was being held or gonna be arrested or something of that nature. But also that any ship going through Suez has to have 2 local guys, assumedly Egyptians, being pilots through the canal. And there have been problems with the lotcal pilots such as not paying attention, drinking, eating, playing games etc. Just feeble memory kicking in. Could be mis/disinfo, real, who knows.
Interesting, thanks for sharing. Worth knowing about for future reference and corroboration.
On the current Suez situation, it’s not completely weird - but somewhat weird. The MASSIVE Bitter Lake in the middle is empty, yes. But, there is some traffic at the southern end of the south canal, and northern end of the north canal. The south canal’s traffic is all moving south. This *could* be normal - it would be the normal method to change the prevailing traffic direction, as the southern canal is completely one way.
But, the north canal has two separate lanes, so it can have two way traffic. The entire lengths of these dual lanes are empty. The first few miles to the entry from the mediterranean is single lane, and does have some traffic, going south.
Worth checking for yourself if you want: vesselfinder.com