I took the new eco-friendly Dover-Boulogne ferry – it has its own passport control ...Middle East

Two hours ago, I stood atop the white cliffs of Dover under a clear blue sky, gazing across the glistening English Channel.  

The Strait of Dover looked still and inviting, a picture of calm. It was an illusion, I realise now, as our catamaran barrels over eight-foot waves and skipper Andrew Simons fetches the sick bucket.

“Look at the horizon,” says the Yorkshireman, calmly. “It’ll stop you feeling seasick.”

I heed his advice, training my eyes on one of P&O’s belching behemoths as it heaves towards Calais under a sky crisscrossed with plane contrails. Our sailboat feels like a quiet rebellion, a rebuff to the fast pace of modern life. This is slow travel, an immersive experience dictated by wind speeds, tide times and weather.

I’m on a new sailboat ferry to France, a first-of-its kind service on a 30-year old catamaran operated by SailLink, a start-up founded by former boatbuilder Simons. It will operate between April and October, with two services per week in either direction. During the pilot phase, it never had to cancel due to bad weather.

However, the mohawked entrepreneur has spent the past five years navigating “rolls of red tape” to launch this low-carbon alternative to existing cross-Channel ferries. Finally, it’s a reality.

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“If we can prove this for a season, there’s nothing stopping us,” says Simons, whose main aim, he quips, is “to avoid financial ruin or a mental breakdown”. Joking aside, he hopes to launch multiple cross-Channel routes, include Newhaven to Dieppe and Weymouth to Cherbourg.

For now, though, SailLink operates only between Dover and Boulogne-Sur-Mer, a journey that takes around four hours with a fair wind.

In contrast to the big ferry firms, SailLink’s 12-passenger catamaran departs from a quiet, yacht-strewn pontoon in Dover Marina, far from the hubbub of the busy port. Dover Priory station is a 20-minute walk away, meaning passengers can easily travel onwards via public transport. “Ferry terminals are often far from stations,” laments Simons.  

As for passport control, that’s a breeze: border guards, no doubt grateful to be out of the office, checked our particulars on the boat. We didn’t even need to leave our seats.

It’s not always plain sailing. Conditions have conspired against Simons and his crew, which today comprises Dunkirk-based Cassandre Verhegge and Bristol-based Will Howard. During testing, they were forced to fire up the motor when there was no wind. “We did about 75 per cent of the crossings with the sails and 25 per cent on fuel,” says Simons, who plans to invest in an electric boat.

Like the tide, the conversation turns onboard. “We’re in the shipping lane now,” shouts Simons, who scans the horizon, keeping an eye on the island-sized cargo ships in the distance. The Strait of Dover is the world’s busiest shipping lane, with more than 500 vessels chugging through it daily. Simons and his crew must pick a way through.

I mingle with the other passengers. Claire White and James Taylor from Essex are crossing with their bikes, kicking off a cycling holiday that will take them across northern France to Belgium and the Netherlands.

Cassandra Verhegge, is a French crew member (Photo: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty)

“We like to support things that don’t create carbon,” says White, a gardener. It wasn’t just SailLink’s low-carbon credentials that attracted her to the service, though. “It’s the sense of adventure,” she adds, as waves splash the deck. “We live safe lives most of the time, there’s an element of risk out here.”

That sense of adventure, alas, proves too much for her partner Taylor, who disappears below to hug the toilet. Keen to avoid a similar fate, I venture onto the deck to watch for dolphins. “We saw some yesterday,” says Simons, encouragingly.

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Joining me is John Fleming from Cambridge, the only other passenger on today’s crossing. A keen sailor, Fleming hopes to buy a catamaran for his retirement and wanted to see how this one handled.

“I’m impressed,” says the operations director, adding: “I hope they can make this work. It’s a great idea. I can see myself doing this several times a year.”

One by one, we’re invited to take the helm. I’ve never sailed before but Howard gives me a crash course, telling me to focus on a landmark and keep the wheel pointing towards it. Easier said than done. I find myself losing my marker, forcing Simons to step in. “Keep a steady course,” he says. Righto, capt’n.

It’s a privilege to take the helm, thrilling to feel the weight of the sea and responsibility, but tiring. I hand back over to Howard and watch Boulogne, and its hilltop basilica come into view. The sea is calmer now. Taylor reappears from below deck, looking wan.

“It’s not easy being green, is it,” I offer, sympathetically. “No,” he says, managing a smile. “I feel pretty green, though.”

A small crowd gathers to watch us dock in Boulogne, as a French border guard strides along the pontoon to greet us, a smile on his face, a briefcase in his hand. “Bonjour,” he says, cheerfully, before getting down on one knee to stamp our passports.

In the era of post-Brexit border friction, SailLink’s service feels like a quaint back door into Europe. There are no queues, no scanners, no paranoid security infrastructure. Just a man on a pontoon overdue his afternoon aperitif.

He’s not the only one. It’s thirsty work, sailing across the Channel, so I say “au revoir” to SailLink’s crew and my fellow passengers, and cycle to the old town for drinks, feeling the breeze on my sun-kissed face; the breeze that, by no small feat, blew me here from England.

SailLink offers one-way tickets from Dover to Boulogne from £75, plus an extra £10 to take a bike. See the summer timetable here

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