The eagle-eyed observer of Sailing Karisma will note that I’m sitting at home tonight, writing a blog. Which I shouldn’t be. I should be on board Inseyandra, somewhere in the De Guingand bowl fleet, heading east out of the Solent to Cherbourg. Something like this.
But I’m not. I got halfway to Gosport and realised…. I had left my passport at home, and did not have enough time to go home, get it, and still make the race start.
Yes I’d probably get away with it. I’m not absolutely sure I even need a passport to go to France (aren’t we all open borders in the EU these days?) and anyway the likelyhood of the French asking for papers at the other end, while not non-existent, is small. The likelyhood of a British border patrol choosing to look over the yacht and her papers on return is pretty small as well.
But, I figured, at the end of the day knowingly leaving the UK without your passport is pretty daft. Quite apart from whatever legalities might apply, it’s not unheard of for crews to have to leave a yacht in a foreign port due to some mechanical issue or other and, without a passport, flying or getting a ferry home would be pretty awkward. So I decided it was better not to go, and we had to turn around and drive home through four hours of traffic- ‘One Direction’ fans, no less, heading for a show by the same in Cardiff. I have to console myself with watching the race on AIS and the thought that it’s only two weeks to the Morgan Cup- when, even though you don’t need a passport to go to Guernsey, I bloody well will be bringing the thing with me.
Still, I probably would have got away with it. Gutted.
Sailing Karisma 