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SVN Solovelanet Global
When it gets dark, I make an inspection of the deck,
and then lie down on my bunk for the first of the
twenty-minute naps that will mark the rhythm of this
night on my own.
Since ancient times the Black Sea has been consi-
dered an inhospitable place because of both the
aggressive populations that lived along its coasts
(one, Conan, became famous in a Hollywood film),
and because of the strong storms (which are not
frequent at this time of the year.) It is no coinciden-
ce that Jason, the hero of Apollonius's Argonautica,
was sent to these waters by King Pelias, who wanted
to get rid of him. But he survived and completed the
hard quest he had been entrusted with: recovering
a Golden Fleece guarded by a fierce dragon. It was
actually a sheepskin, and historians have discove-
red that it was common practice in these areas to
use animal skins to sift rivers in search of gold.
The alarm rings for the third or fourth time, which
means I have had about an hour of frag-
mented sleep. I get up and look at
the horizon around me for 360°: all
clear. Using the torch I illuminate
the surface of the sails to check
that they are trimmed, and
then I go back below deck, sit
at the chart table and update
the logbook. Checking the
instrumentation, I am a little
surprised that the AIS does
Above: A view of the Bosphorus canal: Its bridges
connect Europe to Asia
Centre: Piazza Grande crossing the Bosphorus
Above: The Kuleli military school in Çengelköy, Turkey
In the contour: Conan the barbarian
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