I have always wondered why they sometimes check your passport when leaving the country and found out one of the reasons the other day. I was looking after two of our granddaughters from Blackpool for a week while their mum went to Tunisia for her first ever foreign holiday with my wife Chris. On the last day, we went for a round trip on my ship, the Dover Seaways.
I showed our passports at the French immigration booth in the Eastern Docks then drove on to the British Border Police booth. On showing our passports to the young lady there, she said my name was different from that of our granddaughters and could I pull over whilst she checked me out on the basis that I could be abducting them!
We handed her one of the girls mobiles with her dad's number on it and she phoned him and confirmed that all was in order. She then pointed out that the kids should be in school and the little one piped up and told her that they had permission to be absent whereupon she was told to keep out of it!
Anyway, all passed off amicably and we went on our way. It is comforting to know that our Border Police are doing their job so effectively and one hopes that the threatened cuts in Immigration Officers do not go ahead as it seems to be madness to do this in the nation's busiest ferry port.
The kids had a fantastic time on the ship and everybody made a huge fuss of them. They went everywhere and there are some sample photos of them below on the Bridge, down the Engine Room and in the Galley.