Schengen Visa - 90/180 rule

[webcraft]

I'm looking at my options for how to solve the problem of a summer Biscay crossing and winter Transat, whilst not spending more than 90d in Schengen.
(No, I don't really want to consider residency as the route since I'm only going to do this for a few months before leaving Europe, and I don't trust that current experiences and regulations will carry over to next year).

By pushing back our Biscay crossing until late July, maybe into August, and then starting our Transat mid December, we are about six weeks short of Schengen time. With my Irish passport I can stay with the boat whilst SWMBO and our son fly home, but we want to minimise that time apart so every day counts.

To what extent can you push your luck with checking in and out- i.e. can you officially check out of e.g. Las Palmas and not actually leave for another few days... or a fortnight...?
Similarly, once you arrive somewhere, can you in practise hang around a quiet anchorage for a few days before making your way to an official port of entry? Specifically this would likely be in Spain after the Biscay crossing, so I'm talking about sneaking up a Ria.
It would be interesting to see what happens in real life, it seems unlikely that officialdom would pounce on you within hours of dropping anchor?

Sneaking up a ria is not IMO a reliable option. We were only accosted at sea once during our voyage to Portugal and that was in Ria Muros where a Spanish customs boat approached us at anchor and demanded to see our paperwork. This was pre-Brexit, so the chances of a UK-flagged yacht escaping undetected and unaprehended in Spain this year is vanishingly small.

You might have a bit more of a chance in Portugal, but my guess is a GNR boat would soon take an interest.

Overstaying at the Canaries end after getting stamped out is probably your best bet, especially if you are not returning to Schengen for a while. Maybe go and chill out in El Hierro or La Palma for a couple of weeks, and if questioned manufacture a technical problem with the boat.

Otherwise, have you considered spending two or three weeks in Morocco on the way down?

Or leaving the Canaries early and waiting in Cap Verde for the trades to kick in?

- W

 

[Kelpie]

Thanks Nick, it looks like this is a solved problem for us though. I'm an Irish citizen and immediate family can travel with me. As far as I'm aware all we have to do is present the relevant certificates (marriage, birth) and my passport. Sounds a bit too good to be true and I'm hoping to hear first hand from someone who has done this successfully.

 

[Mistroma]

Thanks Nick, it looks like this is a solved problem for us though. I'm an Irish citizen and immediate family can travel with me. As far as I'm aware all we have to do is present the relevant certificates (marriage, birth) and my passport. Sounds a bit too good to be true and I'm hoping to hear first hand from someone who has done this successfully.

Webbie is correct about the Rias we spent a couple of seasons cruising there after 2012 and collected a pile of slips from the authorities I think our copies were pink. We kept the forms with our documents and used to wave them when stopped. This almost always resulted in them looking at their clipboards and waving us away, though they did sometimes do another check. We were once told that we'd been checked 3 times in one spot because it was a popular place for dropping off drugs.

I also have an Irish passport and the rules are quite clear about your family when travelling with you. It shouldn't be a problem as EU rules allow your entire family to move around together from country to country with no 90 day limitation. I do know that there was an investigation several years ago, possibly 2017, to document complaints about the system. I think it was more focussed on Visa requirements and families of EU citizens were being refused entry. I remember many examples of completely incorrect understanding of the rules and people being turned away. Not always the usual suspects as some examples cited UK and Germany. I do remember that some authorities insisted that marriage documents must be less than 6 months old. I suppose you could be divorced but still arbitrary as you could have divorced a week ago. The only place I've seen that requirement was in the old report looking into errors made by officials.

I don't know if that report had any effect but would expect authorities to be better informed in 2021.