The U.S. warships in the Black Sea continue to be nowhere near Ukraine, except in the sense of being closer to Ukraine than they would be if they were in port in Spain.
USS Taylor (FFG-50), the frigate, which was last heard of running her propeller aground in Samsun, Turkey, remains there having repairs done. Bosphorus Naval News says Taylor is expected to be in Samsun through the 24th. (BNN also points out that USS Barry (DDG-52) had a similar incident in Samsun in 2008.
USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20), meanwhile, gave up on the Olympics a few days ago and headed to Batumi, Georgia for a port visit, arriving there on Wednesday 19 February. If the Facebook link doesn’t come up for you, the acres of useless space that form Mount Whitney’s bow can be admired at the link.
Her port visit is probably coming to an end;
See the rest on the QT…
The Optimistic Conservative 
Hi,
I am not quite sure if USS Mount Whitney made a port visit to Batumi on her current Olympic deployment. The photo dated 19th February on US Life Facebook page looks suspiciously similar to the photo on USS Mount Whitney’s Facebook page posted on 31st January. during her deployment off Sochi USS Mount Whitney had her AIS transponder turned on and I did not see a movement of her towards to Georgia. Are you able to verify the February visit of USS Mount Whitney to Batumi from a different source?
Thanks, Devrim Yaylali. No, there isn’t collateral confirmation, and you may be right. The photo was definitely posted on 19 February 2014 and referred to entering Batumi port on “Wednesday,” which matched the date of 19 February. But I see that the photo may have been from LCC-20’s visit to Batumi in November 2013.
I see a tweet from you on 24 February saying LCC-20 has entered Istanbul? Is that correct?
Thank you again for keeping up with this.
Hi, yes USS Mount Whitney is in Istanbul for a port visit.