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Sandside Bay

★★★★★Good
Beach break Faces N high tide Offshore South West Best swell North West

Best of the week: Thursday around 09:00, 5–7 ft and offshore.

Surf now3–5ft1.2 m at 11 s from the NW, wind sea 1.2 m from the SE
Wind21mphSE · offshore · gusts 38
Tide 3.1mRising · high 20:17 (4.6 m). Works high tide.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sat
3–4 ft Swell NW 10s Wind 10 mph ★★★★★
Sun
5–8 ft Swell NW 14s Wind 20 mph ★★★★★
Mon
5–7 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Tue
2–3 ft Swell S 4s Wind 22 mph ★★★★★
Wed
9–13 ft Swell NW 9s Wind 24 mph ★★★★★
Thu
5–7 ft Swell NW 7s Wind 7 mph ★★★★★
Fri
2–3 ft Swell W 8s Wind 14 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 5–7 5–8 22–29 35–46 32–41 12–16 9–12 7–10 6–8 4–6 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 5–7 10–13 10–13 9–12 7–10 9–12 6–8 5–7 4–6 3–5 3–4 2–3 2–3 2–3 1–2 1–2
Swell 11s 15s 6s 10s 12s 12s 10s 9s 9s 9s 9s 3s 4s 4s 4s 7s 7s 9s 9s 6s 6s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 8s 8s 8s 9s 9s
Wind mph 15 22 26 41 39 35 14 10 11 13 26 19 30 35 43 39 31 27 20 26 18 11 7 15 14 16 14 13 11 8 5
Tide m 3.5↑ 3.9↑ 4.2↓ 1.9↓ 1.4↑ 3.9↑ 3.4↑ 4.6↓ 2.3↓ 0.9↑ 3.4↑ 2.8↑ 4.8↓ 2.9↓ 0.8↓ 2.6↑ 2.1↑ 4.7↑ 3.6↓ 1.0↓ 1.8↑ 1.6↑ 4.2↑ 4.1↓ 1.5↓ 1.3↑ – – – – –
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

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

Sandside Bay faces north. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from W round to NE; 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 NNWSE
NW
1.2 m at 11 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
SE
1.2 m at 3 s (wind sea) · 6 % reaches the beach

How Sandside Bay works

Swell
Best from the north west.
Wind
Offshore is from the south west; anything with north in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
high tide.
Getting there
Drive past dounreay on the a836 follow signs to sandside bay.

Classic Left Hnaders of Massive swells.. offshore on Big Westely winds.. Beware the WARNING ABOUT NUCLEAR DEBRIS BEING FOUND ON THIS BEACH..

Tide times

  • Sat 20:17High4.6 m
  • Sun 01:35Low0.8 m
  • Sun 07:45High4.6 m
  • Sun 13:56Low1.1 m
  • Sun 19:54High4.8 m
  • Mon 02:12Low0.6 m
  • Mon 08:21High4.7 m
  • Mon 14:34Low0.9 m

Scrabster station, 15 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Photos

In the gallery
A stormy afternoon at Sandside Bay, Reay - geograph.org.uk - 6466294 The beach at Sandside Bay - geograph.org.uk - 7574547

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

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