Ever Given Way

I had something different planned for today, but one does not plan the news.  Since I’m map-oriented, I’m sharing what I found on the “maps” of the Ever Given story, the 20,000 teu+ container ship acting as a cork in a bottleneck.

Below is the context for the story.  If you’re not that familiar with the bigger context, grab a map showing the SE corner of the Mediterranean Sea.  On the map below, notice Alexandria, Cairo, and Tel Aviv.  Aqaba is lower right.  Color code is as follows:  red = tankers, green = freighters, aqua = tugboats.  Also note the absence of traffic for a portion of the canal (that line) going southward from Port Said. Normally there’d be red, green, or aqua icons there.

Here’s a closeup of the location where Ever Given has wedged itself across the canal.

Click on the image below to get a recent Reuters story.  Here from space.com is another story with great images.

Note the aqua-colored  tugboats, out of scale, attempting to extricate the cargo vessel.

With a cork in the bottle, so to speak, ain’t nuttin goin’ nowhere, as I might say in a different setting.

The image below shows more context than the image above.  Suppose your rush order too big for air cargo happened to be on one of those ships.  Actually, there’s cargo halted there for hundreds of millions of folks.

The image below shows bottled up southbound traffic (mostly) unable to proceed beyond Ever Given south of Qaryat al Jana’in.

The image below shows the backup so far in the Mediterranean, again mostly southbound traffic, mostly Asia bound.

It ain’t over yet, and it takes a lot more fuel to get between Europe and Asia by sailing around Capetown.

Personal note:  I sailed from Jeddah to Port Suez 35 years ago and saw lots of traffic on the Red Sea in both directions.

Credit to marine traffic.com for allowing these views.