2025 03 02 West Kriby to Duke of Lancaster, Mostyn and back

With the light winds, we put out a paddle on the new calendar for the Sunday. High pressure and a big spring tide gave us lots of options locally. The plan was to meet up at West Kirby Slip, the usual 2 hours before High Water on Hilbre, and from here we had a number of options:
A – Head over to Mostyn, down to Duke of Lancaster, and then maybe go down to Flint before returning on the ebb.
B – Head over to Talacre Lighthouse and return.
C – Head up to Park Gate and return on the ebb.
D – The usual trip to Hilbre and return.

On the day we opted to head over to the Duke of Lancaster (TSS Duke of Lancaster (1955)). The journey over took about an hour and a half. There were a few ripples as the fast running tide bounced over several sandbanks. As we neared the North Wales Coast, we spotted the red funnel and outline of the vessel. It was more upstream than we had remembered and next time we would aim directly for Mostyn Dock and let the tide drift us down to Llannerch-y-Mor Wharf.

We hauled out on the small concrete slipway in front of the Lancaster and it was not long before the harbour master/security man approached us with “you can’t be here”. There are cameras all over the place and apparently movement near the ship triggers them. He soon realised that we only wanted a break and a cup of coffee and said “ok no problem”. He was keen to tell us all about the plans for the vessel, apparently none and shore it up and let it rust slowly!