Departure

The day to collect our Mahe had finally arrived and started with an overnight ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo. The first job of the morning was to collect the van for all our belongings. There are a limited number of companies which allow UK vehicles to France and the insurance adds quite a premium. We opted for OneCarOne in Preston, but for some minor difficulties finding them we were all checked in and back on the road by 9.15am. Next was packing the van, this was the bit we had been anxious about for a while as although all of our belongings fit within our measured masking taped area in the garage there was still a concern we should have gone for the bigger transit van, but as it was borderline it was hard to justify the £400 increase in hire and ferry charges which could easily be spent elsewhere. So we set about our loading very methodically and after 30 minutes using our well honed packing skills (UK scuba diving requirement) we'd everything in but some dive kit and books and still some space to go. It would be about this point that Kevin thought to step to the side of the van to check the load, which then shortly after resulted in the less careful unpacking of the van and yet more replanning. Owing to our electronics still being stuck in customs we opted to do a second trip the following weekend to deliver these plus the selection of items not fitting in this trip, still cheaper in our car than just switching up to a transit van now. So we selectively reloaded the van and were back on the road by 11am. The usual stressful journey down the M6 in the rain, roadworks and suicidal drivers commenced. Conversation mostly consisted of how we still didn't quite believe that we were actually going, especially Kevin who now leaves the country until a brief return for our wedding.
We arrived in Portsmouth in good time and had a drink in the sun while waiting for the ferry. We were discussing the inevitability of being stopped by security for searching when we board the ferry in our still fairly heavily loaded van packed to the rafters, not looking forward to a third repacking of the van in a single day. Paul had warned me from their trip to La Rochelle, Kevin is clearly suspicious looking as he always gets stopped at any security check point. We'd also been warned by Maggie and Ivan (other Mahe buyers) that flares would be confiscated if found. However, as we didn't want to have to rely on my GCSE French to decode the instructions in the event of an emergency, we thought we'd risk taking UK flares with us rather than buy in France, but we weren't relishing the thought of £150 worth of flares being confiscated either. Heading back to the car to sit in queue and looking around the cars, the majority were retired respectable looking it seemed more certain that we'd be scrutinized. There was a even less hope when the neighboring row of cars started moving and Kevin spotted every fourth car was being waved to the security area and we were fourth in row! Then a glimmer of excitement when we started moving and the second car had not returned and were now third. However, clearly we were even more suspicious looking than we thought as they decided to pull us in out of sequence or perhaps they are trained to detect people holding their breath!
We got quite a friendly looking young guy and thought our luck was in when he just started running through the standard airport type questions about packing bags/vans yourself usually fairly innocuous as long as you don't make any wise cracks about bombs etc. Clearly with the enhanced security threat, the ferry companies had opted to use this masterly detection technique for terrorists too. We were home and dry.
"Do you have any knives or sharp objects?". No no we assured him. We smiled and nodded expecting now to be waved on our way.
"Can I just have a look in the back?" Drats
"Of course"
So we both get out and open the back doors, it is about now that both Kevin and I both individually spot the lovely set of chefs knives that Kevin bought me in a leather presentation brief case immediately inside the door to the van. The security guy whistles and says "it looks very full" in a it's the end of my shift type way, great perhaps we've got away with it!
"Perhaps you could just open that brief case there in the front" He was obviously thinking it looked innocuous and he could still finish in time! They were pretty sporting about it and said they would just take the set off us for the journey and we could collect them on the other side. They didn't look any further as I guess they felt happy with their find. Kev saw the stock pile of confiscated knives they had accumulated, so we got off lightly especially when you consider the pile of diving, fishing and sailing knives we had in the van! We genuinely did not know that this was the case the only notice we saw was the one pointed out to us in the security area which is a bit late, I'm sure that was the excuse of the person who had their maschete confiscated too! We were relieved and amused to be honest and the phrase "No, no knives here" was repeated regularly though the evening over a few drinks!