Checking in to Spain from the UK
By Romy McIntosh
So you’ve crossed Biscay (woo! Go you, what an achievement!) and the Torre of Hercules is looming over you as you sail across the bay into A Coruna. But now what!? If you’re anything like us, you want the boat moored up and a crisp, cold cerveza in hand ASAP, quickly followed by some tapas.
Romy Mcintosh
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If you’re more of a life-on-the-hook type person, (like us) I’m afraid that in a post-Brexit world, the requirement to check in to the EU from the UK means that a night in a marina is something you’re just going to have to grin and bear, as they facilitate the process for you. Unless of course, you’ve already gone through the process in France. Luckily A Coruna has several marinas to choose from.
The first one you will come to when entering the harbour is Marina Coruna. It wasn’t the plan, but after our first choice, Marina Real Club Nautica, didn’t answer our radio call, we called Marina Coruna. They responded immediately and met us at the pontoon to take our lines.
The marina itself is somewhat worn out, Rhys put his foot through a plank on one of the jetties… the staff, however, are very friendly and when we went up to the office with our passports and boat papers in hand we were met by a very efficient lady who checked us in, filled out the paperwork and booked our appointment at the police station later that afternoon to get passports stamped (more on this below).
After this, we headed straight into town for that previously mentioned well-deserved cerveza, about a 10-minute walk from the marina. This turned out to be a funny experience as I (Romy) sat with the dog at a table outside and Rhys and Charlie ventured to the bar. It was at this point upon walking up to the bar that even though we had been planning to come to Spain for over a year, we realized we didn’t speak a word of Spanish. Somewhat of an oversight on our part, however, after some comic miming, the boys walked back out into the bright, warm afternoon with our reward for the last five days at sea, and oh did the first one go down well!
The visit to the police station turned out to be simple. We pressed a telecom button at a side door and handed over our passports to a somewhat surly looking plain-clothes policeman, who took them back inside whilst we waited apprehensively in the afternoon heat. Shortly afterward he returned with our passports stamped to show we had entered via a port and just like that our 90 days in the EU had started!
