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Gills Bay

★★★★★Fair
Faces NE all tides Offshore South Best swell North West

Best of the week: Sunday around 09:00, 6–8 ft and offshore.

Surf now3–5ft1.1 m at 11 s from the NW, wind sea 3.0 m from the SE
Wind32mphSE · cross-off · gusts 57
Tide 2.6mRising · high 21:02 (4.2 m). Works all tides.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
4–5 ft Swell E 8s Wind 10 mph ★★★★★
Sun
6–8 ft Swell E 11s Wind 4 mph ★★★★★
Mon
6–8 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Tue
1–2 ft Swell S 5s Wind 30 mph ★★★★★
Wed
2–4 ft Swell W 9s Wind 30 mph ★★★★★
Thu
1–2 ft Swell NW 8s Wind 14 mph ★★★★★
Fri
0–1 ft Swell SE 4s Wind 23 mph ★★★★★
Sat 24 Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30
Time 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 06 09 12 15 18
Surf ft 3–4 6–8 6–8 5–7 23–31 22–29 7–10 6–8 4–6 4–5 3–4 1–2 1–2 1–2 0–1 0–1 2–3 2–3 1–2 2–3 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1
Swell 7s 11s 11s 8s 11s 12s 11s 9s 9s 9s 5s 8s 5s 5s 7s 5s 5s 9s 9s 4s 9s 8s 8s 8s 8s 8s 4s 3s 4s 4s 4s
Wind mph 27 17 4 38 39 37 17 11 15 19 37 26 42 39 49 47 39 35 28 30 24 14 12 20 17 26 23 18 14 10 7
Tide m 2.9↑ 3.2↑ 4.2↓ 2.2↓ 1.3↑ 3.2↑ 2.7↑ 4.3↑ 2.6↓ 1.0↑ 2.7↑ 2.2↑ 4.3↑ 3.2↓ 1.0↓ 2.1↑ 1.8↑ 4.0↑ 3.7↓ 1.3↓ 1.6↑ 1.5↑ 3.6↑ 4.1↓ 1.8↓ 1.3↑ – – – – –
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

Gills Bay faces north-east. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from NW round to E; 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 NENWSE
NW
1.1 m at 11 s (swell) · 77 % reaches the beach
SE
3.0 m at 6 s (wind sea) · 24 % reaches the beach

How Gills Bay works

Swell
Best from the north west.
Wind
Offshore is from the south; anything with north-east in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
all tides.
Getting there
Follow the Gills ferry sign once your in Thurso area.. once the head to Gill.. park in the nearest graveyard and walk across the fields.

Massive Left hander when a big swell hits.. really bad rips.. bewarned...

Tide times

  • Sat 21:02High4.2 m
  • Sun 01:54Low1.0 m
  • Sun 08:33High4.2 m
  • Sun 14:13Low1.2 m
  • Sun 20:38High4.3 m
  • Mon 02:28Low0.8 m
  • Mon 09:08High4.3 m
  • Mon 14:48Low1.0 m

Gills Bay station, 1 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
The pier at Gills Bay - geograph.org.uk - 3585869 Pier at Gills Bay - geograph.org.uk - 7800656

Bill Boaden, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. don cload, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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