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Dunnet Bay

★★★★★Fair
Reef break Faces NW all tides Offshore South East Best swell North West

Best of the week: today around 10:00, 6–8 ft and cross-off.

Surf now6–8ft2.1 m at 10 s from the NW, wind sea 0.9 m from the NE
Wind18mphNE · cross-on · gusts 30
Tide 3.4mFalling · low 06:08 (2.0 m). Works all tides.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sun
6–8 ft Swell NW 11s Wind 4 mph ★★★★★
Mon
4–6 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 7 mph ★★★★★
Tue
1–2 ft Swell E 4s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Wed
2–3 ft Swell W 10s Wind 7 mph ★★★★★
Thu
1–3 ft Swell N 6s Wind 10 mph ★★★★★
Fri
1–2 ft Swell N 7s Wind 6 mph ★★★★★
Sun 15 Mon 16 Tue 17 Wed 18 Thu 19 Fri 20
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 6–9 6–8 6–8 5–7 5–8 6–8 6–8 5–7 2–3 2–3 1–2 1–2 0–1 0 0 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–3 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 0–1 1–2
Swell 11s 11s 11s 11s 11s 7s 6s 9s 9s 9s 4s 4s 4s 4s 4s 4s 4s 3s 8s 10s 6s 6s 6s 4s 4s 7s 7s 6s 6s 6s
Wind mph 11 4 3 9 5 20 17 15 6 3 15 16 16 15 15 8 8 6 6 7 10 9 9 8 8 6 5 6 5 5
Tide m 2.0↓ 2.7↑ 3.7↑ 3.2↓ 1.9↓ 2.3↓ 2.5↑ 3.4↑ 3.4↓ 2.3↓ 2.7↓ 2.4↑ 3.1↑ 3.5↓ 2.7↓ 3.1↓ 2.4↓ 2.7↑ 3.4↑ 3.2↓ 3.4↓ 2.5↓ 2.3↑ 3.2↑ 3.5↓ 3.6↑ 2.8↓ 2.0↑ 2.9↑ 3.8↑
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way Dunnet 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 Gills Bay 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 Wednesday 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

Dunnet Bay faces north-west. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from W round to NW; 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 NWNWNE
NW
2.1 m at 10 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
NE
0.9 m at 3 s (wind sea) · 0 % reaches the beach

How Dunnet 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
Dunnet is between Thurso ans John o Groats on the a836

Miles of NW facing Beaches Picks up most swell in the area but easily effected by W winds.. Look for the secrect reef around here.

Tide times

  • Sun 00:40High3.4 m
  • Sun 06:08Low2.0 m
  • Sun 12:48High3.7 m
  • Sun 18:56Low1.8 m
  • Mon 01:39High3.3 m
  • Mon 07:00Low2.2 m
  • Mon 13:39High3.6 m
  • Mon 20:02Low1.9 m

Gills Bay station, 11 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
Sand dunes, Dunnet Bay - geograph.org.uk - 2379116 Waves on Dunnet Beach - geograph.org.uk - 3596237

Paul E Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Bill Boaden, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Comments

1 Jan 2010 · eightlegged A lot more mellow than it's sister break across the river. Holds a mellow left and a quite full on right. can be hard to get the tide right as it works on Low-mid through to Mid-High.. hard window to catch!

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