1430 and just had our third "Force Navale" interception of the day. The first was at Kwamouth where the Kasai joins the Congo - a high speed launch armed with forward mounted machine gun and men in sunglasses.

They cut across our bow Rambo fashion and then did a fast turn round the stern and boarded us - but all very friendly, particularly once they had received their $10 pay off.

Since then we have had two motorised dugouts (the backbone of the Congolese navy) launch themselves from the bank at us. The first, very laid back with a tatty Congolese flag just holding together, but the second v pumped up because "Coco Guy" had pointed a camera at them. He hadn't actually taken a shot, but they worked themselves up into a lather about it (or rather about the potential for an increase in bribe). However, Michel faced them down, insisted no photo was taken, yelled at them when they persisted and after a bit of perfunctory paper checking they left a bit down in the mouth, but with (small) bribe.