Page 28 - SOA 109

Mea Requies nearly home

This is the diary, blog and email conversations between Nigel at

Northshore and Arnold onboard Mea Requies. Arnold is trying to
get Mea Requies to Northshore for layup over winter. The re-
strictions due to Covid, travel corridors and unexpected changes
to UK entry for visitors and visiting yachts played havoc with his
plans.

On 15 September 2020 we had been advised by Northshore that it was
not possible to stay on their pontoon and then travel to the airport to
return to Switzerland. This dashed our hope of going to England for our
winter lay up!

But then in the evening we received the following message from the
Southerly Owner Association's Facebook group:
Tim Williams :

Hi Arnold, I don't see any problem with what you are proposing. If you
stay onboard in Itchenor and then go straight to the airport that doesn't
break the rules. You should also complete this form:
https://www.gov.uk/provide-journey-contact-details-before-travel-uk
After this different advice, we confidently filled out the forms after dinner
in the restaurant and then printed them out. Now we hope that Tim is
right and that we won't have any problems if we cross the channel tomor-
row and will probably arrive in Itchenor at night. The gate in St. Vaast la
Hougue opens shortly before 07:00 and to Itchenor it is at least 80 nauti-
cal miles, i.e. about 16 hours. We very much hope that the Border Force
won't send us back to France then.

At 07:00 we left St. Vaast full of anticipation and motored north. The
beautiful sunrise promised to be a beautiful day, we thought. Soon the
wind came up and everything went fantastic under sail, just great.

Page 28