Here we sit waiting, to hear if we get to transit the canal today or not.... NOT.....tomorrow. We phone our agent and ask if he can arrange a taxi to take us on a two and a half hour drive south to visit the Christian Coptic Monastery of St Anthony. We collect our friend Lenus, from the yacht Silver Fern from New Zealand. Since it's the sabbath here (Friday) we have to wait until after prayers. We think it will be 1:30 and it turns out to be almost 2:30. The monastery closes at 5. They tell us an it"s an hour an half drive which of course turns into 2 hrs and we roar up to the gates after 4. As it turns out, it's our lucky day! Dave struck up a conversation with one of the monks, Fr. Ruwais Antony. He turns out to be one of the top guns in the place. Guess what???? He has lived in Seattle. We had old home week for a few minutes before he takes us under his wing. He took us on a very special tour. We got in every nook and cranny. Amazing. He even let us walk on top of the wall and enter the first church, (400 AD) where we saw beautiful fresco paintings on the walls. We went into the dining hall that was used 1500 years ago. We walked with the ghosts of the first Christians. It was goosebumpy.