It seems the timing of our visit to Georgia was fortuitous as only three weeks after we departed the Russians bombed the harbour at Poti where we had been berthed causing a number of fatalities. Our berth at the yacht club in the centre of the harbour would have been within shrapnel range if not closer. We feel for those poor people of Poti and the friends we made there who had expectations of better times ahead. When we visited Tbilisi, the government must have been plotting their confrontation with South Ossetia. What possessed them to do it in the face of likely Russian retaliation God only knows. We did see a ship delivering a cargo of armoured vehicles in Poti.
From Asmara we have sailed on westward, with our usual escort of dolphins, towards Istanbul, where we have more crew joining from Australia. Our next port was Zonguldak, a small city which we were told would not be of any interest and where we would find it hard to find a berth in the harbour. On our arrival we found it to be an attractive place built on steep rolling hills surrounding the port. We easily found a berth amongst the local fishing boats and explored the city which has an economy based on coal mining. The waterfront was lined with tea gardens and market stalls and old mysterious structures. From Zonguldak we pressed on to Eregli, a city based on steel making and ship building. Despite the proximity of the steel mill it proved to be a lovely town with landscaped gardens and parks lining the harbour. Then on to an anchorage at kefken and a nights at Sile and Poyraz at the entrance to the Bosphorus. We have completed our circumnavigation fo the Black Sea.
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