I am sorry Mamoun, but you’ve got nothing on these guys in Egypt, selling their falafel from a cart on the side of the road. Sharm el Sheik is a diving resort town in the Red Sea.
These were some of the most delicious falafel I’ve ever tasted. These are pics from the prep zone, I think the yellow substance in the bottom right is eggplant sitting in an egg bath.
Mmmmm….batter.
Designed Conversation is a class project I have been involved with for the past two months. We have been working with a group of homeless men from Union Mission in Savannah to come up with some bedding designs to make their lives a little bit better. The culmination of our efforts was shown last week at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City. This gave us exposure to some heavy hitters in the design world, especially as we are mostly a bunch of fiber artists, and not furniture makers. We really wowed them and won the award for Best Design School and and the Metropolis Magazine Editors Pick. Please check out our Designed Conversation website for more info and pictures.
Please note the halal cow in the bottom left hand corner of this picture I took in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt in November.
Oh, you say you can’t see it, how about a close up…
Please note the vegetarian cow in the center of this picture taken in the square by my house in March…
We left South Florida in September, on Maverick II, a 140 foot motor yacht, as professional yacht crew. Our goal was to travel, on our own bottom, to Phuket, Thailand. We traveled east, against the prevailing weather patterns and into crappy seas across the Atlantic (surprise tropical storm), across the Mediterranean (big seas), through the Suez Canal, across the Red Sea (high winds) and across the Indian Ocean (into the wind).
I am proud to say we are 180 degrees, 12 time zones, and 11,583 miles–literally half a world away from where we started 4 and a half months ago.
Many questioned our ability to succeed. I laugh at them as I drink my Singha beer and watch dozens of weird little boats carrying cargo of jelly fish to sell to restaurants.
We happened upon this floating spirit house halfway between the Maldives and phuket, Thailand. Even though we were only about 200 miles south of Sri Lanka, the water currents and wind dictate that this must have come from Thailand, more than 700 miles to the east of us.
It must be carrying some pretty powerful prayers…
Here are some stats to give you an idea of what I have been up to:
Miles traveled by sea since 1 Sept 2008: 9,812
Days off since 1 August: 11 (i don’t get weekends)
Countries visited: Bahamas, Bermuda, Azores (Portugal),Gibraltar, Italy, Malta, England (plane), Egypt, Oman, Maldives
Ovens killed: 2
Number of Christmas turkeys cooked in a toaster oven: 2
Most frequently used appliance: Mavis
Hours spent watching Gilmore Girls episodes: 119
Best books read: “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert; “Water for Elephants” by Sara Greun
What I miss most: my house, making art not food, having a life, Taco Bell
This picture is from my last day off, we went to the pyramids of giza and to cairo. I don’t know what I expected, but the second I saw the pyramids behind the sphinx, I couldn’t speak. Every time I tried to open my mouth, nothing happened.
When we got back to the boat, after a six hour round trip listening to Zamfir the whole way, we caught 2 hours of sleep and awoke at 230 am to begin our Suez canal transit. Not including the thousands of dollars it cost the boat, we paid almost 12 cartons of cigarettes.
We are currently in Port Ghalib, a sleepy diving mecca in the Red Sea. The closest provisioning is a 45 minute drive away and there is no fresh veg there. We have plenty of Gatorade on board, so we shouldn’t be concerned about scurvy before the next leg of the trip.
On my day off today, I had a choice:
1: 6 hours each way in a bus to Luxor to see the Valley of the Kings
2: Chill out and do nothing
Lets say you were me and you work about 14 hours a day and live at your job with your co-workers and your boss (I know who wears what kind of underwear) and you get one day off every two weeks to one month. Lets say your last “day off” was followed immediately by a 24 hour work day. What would you do?
This is what I am doing:
Some things to know about Gibraltar:
Hooray from the other side of the Atlantic. It isn’t quite the accomplishment it was 400 years ago, but we have made it successfully across the Atlantic Ocean from FT Lauderdale to Gibraltar. Quite thrilling to emerge from the vast and open ocean into the Straights of Gibraltar, a ten mile stretch of water framed on the south by the Atlas Mountain in Africa and on the North by the Rock of Gibraltar in Europe. (Um, no, it really doesn’t look James Bond-ish at all.)
We mostly had pretty awful weather and very rough seas (imagine the scene in Poltergeist where the beds are lifted and shaking violently and that gives you an idea of the sleeping conditions). Our second to last day was calm and we were visited by dolphins. These are a few of the scores of frolicking visitors and a reflection of us in the immeasurably deep ocean.
No, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, I have only set out to reinforce my belief that it is round. As such, I am setting about to traverse a large portion of it by motor yacht. This involves some 11,000 miles (from South Florida to Phuket, Thailand) at roughly 10 miles an hour.
After 9 grueling days at sea, (Handsome Husband purports it was only 7) most of which were taken up with battling Tropical Storm Jerry which formed out of nowhere between us and our destination, we arrived crusted with salt. The Azores are a cluster of islands owned by Portugal, south and west of Portugal in the Northern Atlantic.
This is my second day off since early July, but I am back on the boat to do a little work.
Some notes about Horta:
