Today we started early, just after docking in Sarande’s new port. We boarded the buses for a 40-minute drive to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Butrint. This is one of our favorite places that we visit during this voyage because it is like a microcosm of Mediterranean history. You can see all her phases of development from the Hellenistic temples of the 4th century B.C. up to the Ottoman defenses built in the early 19th century.
We started walking on the flat, lower part with the Venetian tower from 15-16th century, passing the 4th century B.C. sanctuary dedicated to the healing god Asclepius, the Roman Theatre and bathhouse. We stopped at the beautiful baptistery with the mosaic floor, which now you can only see on the pictures as the mosaics are covered with sand in order to protect them. We admired the very well preserved Great Basilica from the early Christian ages. Those of us who decided to continue up the hill walked through the Lion Gate up to the Venetian castle built in the 14th-16th century that now is the house of a small but outstanding museum. The whole side is partially taken by nature, which makes it even more beautiful. Albania is a country just recently recovering from communist times, and local leaders can only now devote more and more money each year to protect and rediscover these fantastic remnants of so many past civilizations.
In the afternoon we motored through the Corfu channel looking for some wind to sail. After setting sails we listened to a talk entitled “The Myth of Maps” given by National Geographic Expert Grace Fielder. In the evening we had a chance to learn more about the history of the legendary Sea Cloud. The expedition leader Tom O’Brien prepared a presentation giving us a lot of information from the first years of Sea Cloud till the most recent refurbishment of this magnificent ship. We visited all original cabins admiring Marjorie’s cabin’s white-and-gold design and Hutton’s wooden “man cave.” We talked a lot during dinner about which one was more beautiful. We went to sleep dreaming about previous years of Sea Cloud as the private yacht and the extraordinary wedding gift from Ed Hutton to his wife Marjorie Merriweather-Post.
