SPCR

[lustyd]

How is the SPCR reporting service so bad?! I just submitted a voyage plan to leave and had to answer a question on why UK VAT is not due, then was told I must leave my Q flag up until UK border officials let me take it down.
I’m leaving the country for 9 months at least, no way am I waiting for that, and I’m certainly not paying the UK to export my boat!

Sorry for the rant but this service makes me ranty.

Now for the French version…

 

[dolabriform]

How is the SPCR reporting service so bad?! I just submitted a voyage plan to leave and had to answer a question on why UK VAT is not due, then was told I must leave my Q flag up until UK border officials let me take it down.
I’m leaving the country for 9 months at least, no way am I waiting for that, and I’m certainly not paying the UK to export my boat!

Sorry for the rant but this service makes me ranty.

Now for the French version…

My recent experience has been that when you submit the return voyage plan, you will get a reply within a couple of hours telling you all is good and you can lower your q flag on entry to port.

Just put returned goods relief as the VAT answer.

The French one is much easier

 

[newtothis]

Life was much easier when the rules were set out by SPQR.

 

[dolabriform]

The keep the Q flag up bit is only for entry into the UK

 

[lustyd]

The keep the Q flag up bit is only for entry into the UK

No it definitely says it when you leave, that’s the point of the thread.

 

[mjcp]

Life was much easier when the rules were set out by SPQR.

Yeah, but what did they ever do for us?

 

[Plum]

then was told I must leave my Q flag up until UK border officials let me take it down.

When I got that message they also did not say how long I should remain in that UK port. A few hours later I sailed off again.

 

[sigma38dave]

Sounds painful!

We’re looking at doing some extended French cruising, I’m on Duolingo every evening after work picking up where I left off at school 40 years ago with a couple of words of French.

So far I’m ranked number 2 in their bronze learning league, I was quite pleased with that until I realised I’m probably being scored against 5 year old school kids.

Anyway, I’m waiting for the section ‘dealing with French officials’, just finished ‘family and friends’…sadly I fear ’I have a very amusing Aunt, she lives in Toronto’ which is something like ‘J’ai une tres amusant Taunte elle vient a Toronto’ isn’t going to help our arrivals too much!

 

[lustyd]

So far our French has been largely unnecessary.
Always say Bonjour when entering anywhere, you’re saying it to the room not a person.
“Je suis désolée, Je suis anglais, Je ne parle pas français” gets you a long way.

Every marina, boulangerie and border person we’ve met so far spoke good English. The one exception was in Screwfix at Dieppe where he apologised for not speaking English and I said no worries (Pas de problème) and pointed at the product id on my phone. Communication doesn’t always require words, but they can help.
The only thing that’s tripped us up is at Carrefour who ask if you have a loyalty card after a transaction. They speak fast because they say it 1000 times a day so until we worked it out that one was hard.

 

[Concerto]

What difference to when I was a child and visited Ostend in the late 1960's. My parents always had a problem going shopping. They usually chose the nearest shop to the harbour. Frequently they could not find what they wanted. Yet every time they asked me to get something for them, I returned with the correct item. Eventually they asked how I did it. Well my childish logic came into play. "You walk into a shop and ask if they spoke English. If no, then I would walk out and continue till I found one that did." Things are so much easier now days with mobile phones able to translate or show images of what you want.

 

[sigma38dave]

So far our French has been largely unnecessary.
Always say Bonjour when entering anywhere, you’re saying it to the room not a person.
“Je suis désolée, Je suis anglais, Je ne parle pas français” gets you a long way.

Every marina, boulangerie and border person we’ve met so far spoke good English. The one exception was in Screwfix at Dieppe where he apologised for not speaking English and I said no worries (Pas de problème) and pointed at the product id on my phone. Communication doesn’t always require words, but they can help.
The only thing that’s tripped us up is at Carrefour who ask if you have a loyalty card after a transaction. They speak fast because they say it 1000 times a day so until we worked it out that one was hard.

I was hoping you were going to say you’d met a Frenchman with an amusing Aunt who lives in Toronto

 

[benjenbav]

As an aside, I think ‘SPCR’ is a particularly annoying acronym.

‘Submit a PCR’ seems entirely logical.

But tacking the ‘S’ on at the beginning just transforms it into something obscure.

 

[Supertramp]

As an aside, I think ‘SPCR’ is a particularly annoying acronym.

‘Submit a PCR’ seems entirely logical.

But tacking the ‘S’ on at the beginning just transforms it into something obscure.

Wasn't it something in Asterix the Gaul?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

So far our French has been largely unnecessary.
Always say Bonjour when entering anywhere, you’re saying it to the room not a person.
“Je suis désolée, Je suis anglais, Je ne parle pas français” gets you a long way.

Every marina, boulangerie and border person we’ve met so far spoke good English. The one exception was in Screwfix at Dieppe where he apologised for not speaking English and I said no worries (Pas de problème) and pointed at the product id on my phone. Communication doesn’t always require words, but they can help.
The only thing that’s tripped us up is at Carrefour who ask if you have a loyalty card after a transaction. They speak fast because they say it 1000 times a day so until we worked it out that one was hard.

I find the same in Hong Kong! Despite attempting to learn Cantonese, I only have a few words. But I have yet to meet a Hong Konger who let that interfere with selling me something !