SATURDAY, APR 24TH--OFFSHORE COTONOU, BENIN

Total mess here today. Was suppose to dock by 8am but apparently there was a cargo ship at our berth so waited. Then they said the cargo ship experienced engine failure so more delays. Then a storm blow over with 50 knot winds so we continued to sit bobbing around off shore. Finally at noon the Captain said another storm was coming and he did not want to get trapped in the port so we would not be docking. Curiously, they wanted to tender some entertainers to shore and bring other new ones onboard. Now at 1pm it is looking pretty good weather wise. When looking at Cotonou through my binoculars it looked to be a crappy port anyway. Think Regent only stopped at these next 3 ports because the repeating world cruisers have never been here and was new for them. I’m not real sure how safe they are. So we are going to a movie at 2pm called “The Blind Side”. Now looking like sun is going to come out. Captain better get us out of here before it does or there will be some hell raised. I’m sure they will be getting lots of complaints because we missed this port. 4pm now and just back from the movie. We are half way to Lome our next port already and looks like the Captain wants to be there before dark. Togo is a very small country that is only 40 miles wide at the coast and extends 365 miles inland. It exports phosphates, coffee, cocoa, cotton, and palm oil mostly to its neighboring countries. Apparently political instability has seriously affected its tourism industry. I am expecting a very impoverished country that is marginally safe. As I expected the Captain just made a PA saying we would be docking in Lome, Togo, at around 7:15pm so will overnight there. We have reservations for tonight in the ship’s Prime 7 Steakhouse restaurant. It’s only 76F outside so will go sit out on our balcony and watch ocean roll by. Captain has ship doing 20 kts now which is fastest I have seen it going for whole cruise.