So far, sea boats with Russian tourists sailing from Sochi to Abkhazia reach as far as Gagra. The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed about it today by Valery Papba, head of the State Authority of the Republic of Abkhazia for Transports and Communications.

According to his story, after restart of marine communication between Sochi and Abkhazia on August 17 four voyages took place: three from the port of Sochi and one from Adler. Mr Papba has noted that there are no problems with sending a boat from Sochi, since they have a full-fledged border check point there, not the case so far with the Adler port.

The cruising launch, now sailing between Sochi and Gagra, can take 150-200 passengers and spends about two hours for one trip. They start as the boat is full of passengers; the return ticket is 1000 Russian roubles.

According to Mr Papba, they plan to open a sea route Sochi-Sukhumi by a high-speed "Katran" hydrofoil ship, able to reach Sukhumi from Sochi in 2.5 hours. The ship has 119 seats, including 20 VIP ones.