Week 8, Sharm, and family

Morning from our room, Tiran on the horizon

Cairo has been quiet since the events of the 9^th, happily, and we left after classes on the 12^th to spend 6 days in Sharm el Sheikh, combining diving, seeing Harris’s sister Nancy and husband Tom, and celebrating (if that is the right word) my birthday. This trip was a treat, so we stayed in luxury at the Four Seasons there, notable not only for the cascading Moorish-style buildings sloping down to the beach, but for a superb dive operation, Sinai Blue. The flight to Sharm from Cairo was 45 minutes on Egyptair’s little jet, and our gear arrived no problem (always an anxiety-producer at the start of a dive trip).

Lush grounds of the hotel

Once checked in, we had the best sleep of two months—the mattress vendor for the hotel is obviously not the same as the vendor for AUC’s apartments. The hotel is gorgeous, built down a hill so steep that it has its own funicular if you don’t feel like hoofing it up and down the many stairs. Part of our trip coincided with a British school holiday with lots of families, and it was clear from the kids riding it what puts the “fun” in funicular. Its lush gardens are interspersed with fountains and pools, and the air was clean and sweet, a far cry from Cairo. In fact, we didn’t hear a single honking horn the entire time.

Tom, Harris, and Nancy (factor in jet lag for Tom and a bad hair day for Harris)

Me, Nancy, and Harris

A highlight was seeing Nancy and Tom McCandlish; they were there for a reunion of a group promoting cross-cultural exchanges between the US and the middle east. It was not only wonderful to see them, but Nancy outdid herself in bringing me swag—stuff I can’t find in Cairo, like a sticky mat for yoga, Crystal Lite lemonade, a camper’s filter for water, and cheap 16 gig flash drives. To sweeten the deal, Tom brought Harris scotch, so we are both in high cotton these days. We will spend Saturday with Tom and Nancy in Cairo, and they will stay over with us in Maadi that night, so that visit will continue.

600 HP rigid inflatable

Our main focus while there was diving, and we did 12 dives in 5 and a half days. The straits of Tiran (a nearby island) are about 15 minutes from the Sinai Blue/4 Seasons dock, so most of our dives were done there; one day, we took a 6AM boat to dive a British WW2 wreck, the Thistlegorm, and we also did two night dives on the house reef in front of the hotel. Bottom line: it’s gorgeous there. The reefs in the straits are in great condition, partly owing to the strong currents bathing the corals, and providing food for Napoleon wrasse, sharks, and pretty much everything else endemic to the northern Red Sea. Sinai Blue also owns the fastest boat we have ever been on, a vessel made for search and rescue in the North Sea, with two 300-hp four-stroke Mercury bad boys on the stern. She can go 55 knots, and we saw the speedometer a little over 45. Needless to say, speed like that comes with a VERY rough ride and a certain combination of terror and thrill.

Thistlegorm

Motorcycle in a hold of the Thistlegorm

The Thistlegorm was quite a moving dive. The ship carried supplies for the British army in North Africa when it left the UK June of 1941, a merchant ship built just the year before and drafted into service for the war. After a harrowing trip around the Cape of Good Hope (since the Med was so dangerous), up the coast of east Africa and through the Red Sea, it came to a dead halt along with its British Navy tender since the Suez was blocked by another wreck. German aircraft seeking a troop carrier happened upon it, and it was bombed and sunk quickly. Its lies in 90-100 feet of water, leaning on one side, and its holds are filled with supplies, from trucks to Wellington boots to motorcycles. The sense of loss was profound, especially as this isn’t one of those scenic wrecks covered in soft corals and colors. There were huge fish around, but our excellent dive guide (an old hand at diving the wrecks of the Scottish seas) made sure we really saw the ship inside and out.

Flashlight fish as you see them with torches off

It is worth mentioning that on our night dives, we found first a few and then hundreds of flashlight fish, a wonderful creature whose under-eye patches emit a blue-white light, and who “talk” to their colleagues with flashes. Just gorgeous.

Our final two dives were on the tops of two reefs near Tiran. Both of us noticed how spectacular the shallow reefs were, though most divers seem to be addicted to going deep, so we arranged for two tanks alone with our guide, touring around (or as our Sheffield-born guide Stuart said, “bimbling around”) in 15 feet and agog at the colors of corals and fish. It was total eye candy.

Red Sea reefscape

But there was one very sobering event I learned of while away: Annie Fitzgerald, a vibrant professor in Trinity’s American Studies graduate program, and wife to my wonderful boss Paul Lauter, had a terrible fall and died of fatal head injuries. As Paul so eloquently put it, the light of his life was extinguished. Thankfully, we spent a wonderful evening with them in August, and will always remember Annie as the joyous force of nature that she was.

So that was week eight. Back to work in the morning, good luck, and good night.