Hilbre Trip Pre-lockdown 2nd January
The four of us met at West Kirby on a bright but cold day and waited for the tide to hit the slipway. Two other groups were also launching but took the inside passage inshore of the Little Eye. We headed out to find deeper water but had to fight the tide and the incoming swell. We eventually rounded Little Eye but large waves were breaking on one of the off-shore bars. We gingerly made our way to middle eye and squeezed through the channel with some large swells and made it to the beach on Hilbre. There was not much discussion about not going around the northern end.
While on the beach we met a couple of other paddlers and swapped stories and chit-chat. After lunch we headed back but first had to pick our way through some large waves breaking on the reef on the Southern End of Hilbre. By picking the swells this was easily achieved. We were making good progress with the wind on our backs, but the tide was now ebbing quiet strongly and we had a little trouble punching through the breaking waves caused by swell against tide as it flowed over the shallows off Little Eye. We increased our cadence and surfed through the accelerated flow now against us. Once through, we had an easy paddle back to the Slipway.
