Thanks for that info on Thebes. That is a tantalizing explanation.
There is a greek retired naval officer who was building a minoan ship a few years ago, I don't know what happened to it. No shipwreck of a minoan ship has been found yet, although shiprecks from later mycenian periods were found off the coast of Turkey.
So he was relying on paintings and written descriptions. His ship is about sixty feet in lenght and looks basically like a launch, or rowing boat. The construction technique seems to have sewing the planking together, a technique still in use in historic (roman) times.
The trade route to Egypt from Crete was probably straight south to Lybia and then along the coast all the way to the Delta.
The way back was probably north along the coast, then to Cyprus, then to Crete via Rhodes and Karpathos.
It's not only maritime routes, actually. Pharaoh was able to get lappis lazzuli from Afghanistan..
As for Otzi, it seems he was a warrior,,or at least was involved in serious fighting. Recent analysis have demonstrated that he was from one of the valleys near the glacier where he was found. It was determined that he died from a wound probably caused by an arrow. He also had several arrows with him, some stained with blood coming from two different DNA's. That could mean he killed two men, then got the arrows back from their bodies.