Schengan zone query

[Daydream believer]

I am going SH to Ostend in August for the Paulusfeesten so will check in to the schengan zone there. I want to follow up with trip to meet a club cruise in the CIs. So my intention is to day sail along the French coast via Boulogne, Dieppe, Le Havre. to meet the others in Cherbourg.
I will have 80 days of Schengan time available to me as I am doing a SH trip to Ostend/Holland, May BH.

Am I right in assuming I do not have to check in to France when arriving at Boulogne & can avoid the Taxi ride to Calais

Then when I get to Cherbourg I was going to Check out, Go to Guernsey then check in again at Roscoff & go to Camaret via L'aberwrach then sail back to Roscoff Check out go to Guernsey then Cherbourg- check in & out & then Isle of White (do not want to do Guernsey to IOW SH as too far across channel in one hop if tired) & along UK coast to Bradwell, end of September.
All this checking in & out will be hassle.
Would it matter if I did NOT check out at Cherbourg, but stayed checked in until on my way BACK from the trip to Camaret. In other words, my passport would not be stamped. But as I would be well within the 90 days for 2023 it would not matter to me.
I just wondered how my leaving the zone & going back in might be treated considering the CIs are so close to France.
Any comments. Would anyone notice, or even care

 

[westernman]

Am I right in assuming I do not have to check in to France when arriving at Boulogne & can avoid the Taxi ride to Calais

Correct.

Sailing directly from one Shengen zone country to another there is nothing to do except change the courtesy flag.

No idea if not checking out from Shengen and then in again when going to/from Guernsey will matter.

 

[Tranona]

Check out before going to CIs otherwise your days there count towards your 90 Schengen days. However if you are not bothered about that then stay in Schengen until you finally leave France (or other EU state0

 

[Daydream believer]

Check out before going to CIs otherwise your days there count towards your 90 Schengen days. However if you are not bothered about that then stay in Schengen until you finally leave France (or other EU state0

Yes, but I am not intending to stay in France, am I. So when you say "stay in schengan" are you saying "do not go to the CIs" or are you saying " go to the CIs as proposed & do not bother to book in & out of the Schengan zone.
With the greatest of respect & not wishing to be a pain, but there is a slight lack of clarity in your reply

The 90 days is irrelevant as I will not be exceeding that, whatever happens- unless something unexpected were to happen. ie illness

 

[Tranona]

Well, you clearly say that you are going from the CIs back to France and then leaving Cherbourg (which as far as i know is still in France) where you will get your passport stamped as leaving Schengen. Your days in the CIs will be part of your overall time in Schengen unless you check out at Cherbourg and back in at Roscoff.

I thought your question was which should you do. you can do either and I was just pointing out that if you don't check out your time in the CIs will count. If you are not bothered then don't check out. The fact that the CIs are close to France is totally irrelevant. It is the stamps in your passport that determines where you are from a Schengen point of view. If you have not checked out the assumption is that you are still in - there is not a tracker on your or your boat that prevents you from going to the CIs, nor any restriction on you entering there even though schengen rules assume you are still in the zone.

 

[rjandhl]

As long as nothing goes wrong in the Channel Islands, ie an accident or some emergency that requires a flight or ferry back to the UK.

 

[lustyd]

The CI's won't be bothered, France might be bothered. For the very small amount of effort I'd check out and back in unless you're not going to hit a port of entry when re-entering. As mentioned above if anything goes wrong you may end up stuck checked in to schengen which would be very tedious to sort out in the future.

 

[lustyd]

Thinking a bit more about it, the forms you sign and submit include the port you travelled from which will not match up with your passport stamps. Border control may ignore it or may be having a bad day and decide to make you explain yourself.

 

[Daydream believer]

The problem I may have is that when leaving Cherbourg the trip to Guernsey is very tide dependent. I have read (on this forum) that the customs can be awkward & insist on signing out just prior to departure. It has been said that they can turn up hours late. That could mean a missed tide in the Alderney Race
Then one cannot go to Treguier or Lezardrieux on the way west if desired. One must go to Roscoff. The whole trip along that coast is also tide dependant, so timing clearance is important.

The return also involves hassle booking out at Roscoff, then in & out again at Cherbourg.
I assume that the return to the IOW would be tide dependent past the Needles. Although I have never done that: always returning via Boulogne. But that option is out, as Boulogne is not a point of departure. Dieppe, ( to Dover or Ramsgate) may be, but it depends on weather & I have had some really bad stuff when leaving that coast. I would be doing it in September & have often been stuck & had to do a quick dash across the Dover Straits. So I would rather cross to the IOW.

 

[steve yates]

If maximising your 90 days is not a requirement, then Iwouldnt bother checking out until you finally leave to come home. You can always say you diverted to channel isles because of weather/tide/gremlins or whatever, if asked, I really don't think they will care either way.

 

[Tranona]

The problem I may have is that when leaving Cherbourg the trip to Guernsey is very tide dependent. I have read (on this forum) that the customs can be awkward & insist on signing out just prior to departure. It has been said that they can turn up hours late. That could mean a missed tide in the Alderney Race
Then one cannot go to Treguier or Lezardrieux on the way west if desired. One must go to Roscoff. The whole trip along that coast is also tide dependant, so timing clearance is important.

The return also involves hassle booking out at Roscoff, then in & out again at Cherbourg.
I assume that the return to the IOW would be tide dependent past the Needles. Although I have never done that: always returning via Boulogne. But that option is out, as Boulogne is not a point of departure. Dieppe, ( to Dover or Ramsgate) may be, but it depends on weather & I have had some really bad stuff when leaving that coast. I would be doing it in September & have often been stuck & had to do a quick dash across the Dover Straits. So I would rather cross to the IOW.

So, simple. Just stay in Schengen even if you go to CIs then get stamped at Cherbourg. not sure what your concern is about tides going into the Solent. normal to time your departure to give you arrival off the Needles with a flood tide. The flood and ebb in the channel more or less cancel out in the typical 10-12 hours crossing time. How much of the flood you want in the Solent depends on how far in you want to go before you stop. cowes takes 2 hours or so more than Yarmouth with a flood tide.

 

[LadyInBed]

Previously, if I'm going CH-GU-ROS, I would anchor in Havelet bay Guernsey and not check in to the CI's.
I will probably do the same under the current scheme.

 

[stranded]

The problem I may have is that when leaving Cherbourg the trip to Guernsey is very tide dependent. I have read (on this forum) that the customs can be awkward & insist on signing out just prior to departure. It has been said that they can turn up hours late. That could mean a missed tide in the Alderney Race
Then one cannot go to Treguier or Lezardrieux on the way west if desired. One must go to Roscoff. The whole trip along that coast is also tide dependant, so timing clearance is important.

The return also involves hassle booking out at Roscoff, then in & out again at Cherbourg.
I assume that the return to the IOW would be tide dependent past the Needles. Although I have never done that: always returning via Boulogne. But that option is out, as Boulogne is not a point of departure. Dieppe, ( to Dover or Ramsgate) may be, but it depends on weather & I have had some really bad stuff when leaving that coast. I would be doing it in September & have often been stuck & had to do a quick dash across the Dover Straits. So I would rather cross to the IOW.

Re. checking out - can’t speak to anyone else’s experience but when checking out of Paimpol at the douanes in St Brieuc they were happy to stamp us out on Friday for a planned departure on Saturday and equally unfussed when we called to say we could not leave until Sunday because we needed to make a repair.

 

[[3889]]

The CI's won't be bothered, France might be bothered. For the very small amount of effort I'd check out and back in unless you're not going to hit a port of entry when re-entering. As mentioned above if anything goes wrong you may end up stuck checked in to schengen which would be very tedious to sort out in the future.

Checking in or out of France, especially at weekends, is no small effort. Arrived by boat on a Friday PM at Calais to find Police aux Frontiers closed for the weekend. Took a chance and flew Beauvais-UK without entry stamp (Dover not accepting foot passangers at the time and I couldn't find a cheap bike for sale). Nothing happened.

 

[lustyd]

I suspect that experience was clouded by Covid restrictions based on your saying no foot passengers. Ferry terminals have border controls and are open at weekends. As others have said though, you can check out on a Friday no problem if you have a brief conversation with the people there.

 

[DJE]

Re. checking out - can’t speak to anyone else’s experience but when checking out of Paimpol at the douanes in St Brieuc they were happy to stamp us out on Friday for a planned departure on Saturday and equally unfussed when we called to say we could not leave until Sunday because we needed to make a repair.

It was the same at Cherbourg last year. Many Solent-based yachts were arriving late and booking in the next morning also booking out the evening before an early morning departure. The Police Aux Frontiers came to the marina office at 09:00 and 18:00 every day purely to stamp British passports and they couldn't have been more helpful. Many British yachts were getting stamped in at Cherbourg then out again a day or two later as they departed for the Channel Islands.