There is a secret ship in the sea off Sussex and everyone who is interested in closer links between this county and France should help to keep it going.

Otherwise we might lose the Sardinia Vera, a ferry plying between Newhaven and Dieppe.

Regular travellers will remember that for years, British and French railways ran a loss-making service between the two ports and that Stena took it over when the British railways were privatised.

When Stena abruptly exited, the service was left without a boat before Hoverspeed stepped in and provided a welcome summer service with a fast catamaran.

The Sardinia Vera, a conventional ferry, came into service this year in a bid to complement the catamaran in three ways: it is big enough to take freight, which has always been the backbone of the route; it is stable enough to set sail on almost all seas; and it will run throughout the year.

But something is seriously wrong with this service, as I discovered at the weekend when crossing the Channel as part of the Great Dieppe Trip, organised each year by Brighton-based journalist Peter Avis, to foster good civic and social links between the Sussex city and the French port.

Mr Avis was understandably annoyed when he made a booking for about 40 people on the Sardinia Vera through agents Hoverspeed and found out, purely by chance a few days before sailing, that the crossing had been cancelled.

The party had to travel on a later catamaran service which caused a great deal of inconvenience.

Undaunted, Mr Avis arranged for the party to return on the Sardinia Vera, which is run by Transmanche Ferries, on Sunday afternoon. It was a curious experience. This should have been one of the busiest trips of the summer as it was just before school holidays ended but the ship was empty. This appears to be because Transmanche does not advertise much and Hoverspeed sees no point in boosting a rival.

The Sardinia Vera was built to travel between Sardinia and Corsica. As a result it has a great deal of open deck space, only useful in fine weather. It has one closed deck and no comfortable seats.

There was a tiny and inadequate tax free kiosk. The restaurant opened late and there were no papers on sale. Remarkably little tannoy information was offered to passengers.

When we arrived at Newhaven, everyone on foot had to descend into the bowels of the boat and walk up a greasy ramp in competition with heavy lorries. Luckily, I took my bags with me but those who did not had to wait 40 minutes for their cases to be collected from the ferry, while the rival companies argued over who was responsible for them.

Peter Avis said: "It's all very odd but I wouldn't take another group on this route until the rivals who run it sort out their management procedures intelligently."

No one in Sussex knows Dieppe better than Mr Avis and if he is concerned, alarm bells should certainly be ringing in the offices of both companies.

The Channel Tunnel is all very fine and there are still many ferries from Dover to Calais each day. But it's a long way round in both England and France to reach the varied delights of Normandy.

Most of the people who travel between Newhaven and Dieppe are British but there are still thousands of French holidaymakers using it to visit Sussex.

People who benefit from them should join travellers in badgering the companies to provide a more co-ordinated service, otherwise I cannot see anyone being prepared to finance the ferry much longer.