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Balnakiel Bay

★★★★★Fair
Beach break Faces NW all tides Offshore south-east Best swell North West

Best of the week: today around 17:00, 3–5 ft and offshore.

Surf now2–3ft0.7 m at 9 s from the NW, wind sea 2.6 m from the W
Wind15mphSW · cross-off · gusts 28
Tide 3.1mFalling · low 04:02 (1.7 m). Works all tides.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
3–5 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Sun
8–10 ft Swell N 11s Wind 2 mph ★★★★★
Mon
6–8 ft Swell N 9s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Tue
3–5 ft Swell N 8s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Wed
2–3 ft Swell N 9s Wind 9 mph ★★★★★
Thu
2–3 ft Swell NE 10s Wind 4 mph ★★★★★
Sat 14 Sun 15 Mon 16 Tue 17 Wed 18 Thu 19
Time 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18 06 09 12 15 18
Surf ft 5–7 5–7 5–7 5–7 5–7 12–16 9–13 9–12 8–11 7–10 11–15 10–13 7–10 4–6 3–5 3–5 3–4 2–4 2–3 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 2–3 1–2
Swell 9s 9s 10s 9s 9s 13s 12s 12s 12s 11s 7s 10s 9s 9s 9s 8s 8s 7s 7s 7s 7s 8s 8s 9s 9s 10s 10s 9s 9s 9s
Wind mph 13 13 18 11 4 15 10 12 7 3 15 16 14 11 8 9 9 10 9 7 14 12 10 10 9 2 3 5 5 5
Tide m 2.3↑ 3.9↑ 3.5↓ 1.8↓ 1.7↑ 2.2↑ 3.5↑ 3.6↓ 2.2↓ 1.6↑ 2.2↑ 3.1↑ 3.6↓ 2.7↓ 1.8↓ 2.4↓ 2.8↑ 3.5↑ 3.1↓ 2.0↓ 2.5↓ 2.4↑ 3.3↑ 3.4↓ 2.3↓ 2.8↓ 2.2↓ 2.9↑ 3.6↓ 2.7↓
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Balnakiel Bay faces. Arrows point to where the swell and wind come from: an arrow pointing up means from the north. Tide is the height at Kyle Of Durness above chart datum, rising ↑ or falling ↓; the rating drops when the tide is outside the window this break works on. Amber marks the sessions worth setting an alarm for. From Tuesday the swell comes from Météo-France's 10-day model, which is coarser than the 5 km German model used close in. Hours no model reaches are left blank, not shown as flat.

Exposure

Balnakiel Bay faces north-west. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from NW round to N; the brighter a wedge, the deeper the water in that direction and the more of the swell gets in. Anything from behind the headlands scores nothing, however big the buoy says it is.

NESWfaces NWNWW
NW
0.7 m at 9 s (swell) · 88 % reaches the beach
W
2.6 m at 6 s (wind sea) · 9 % reaches the beach

How Balnakiel Bay works

Swell
Best from the north west.
Wind
Offshore is from the south-east; anything with north-west in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
all tides.
Getting there
Head along the north coast road ( a 838) mind a few sheep along the way.. and head for durness..

Good shelter, long beach break.. mad place.. be sure to visit the craft centre.. bizarre! good for protection from northly winds.

Tide times

  • Sat 04:02Low1.7 m
  • Sat 09:58High4.0 m
  • Sat 16:37Low1.4 m
  • Sat 22:38High3.5 m
  • Sun 04:41Low1.9 m
  • Sun 10:39High3.8 m
  • Sun 17:26Low1.6 m
  • Sun 23:28High3.3 m

Kyle Of Durness station, 2 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Surging swell near Eilean Dubh - geograph.org.uk - 3818043 A big Atlantic swell reaches the shore at Balnakeil Bay - geograph.org.uk - 3818050

Alan Reid, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Alan Reid, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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