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The Watchtower

★★★★★Fair
Point break Faces NE all tides Offshore West Best swell north-east

Best of the week: Tuesday around 06:00, 2–3 ft and offshore.

Surf now2–3ft0.2 m at 9 s from the N, wind sea 3.0 m from the NW
Wind33mphW · cross-off · gusts 54
Tide 4.3mRising · high 13:53 (4.8 m). Works all tides.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sun
3–4 ft Swell NW 6s Wind 31 mph ★★★★★
Mon
2–3 ft Swell N 8s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Tue
2–3 ft Swell SE 7s Wind 11 mph ★★★★★
Wed
0–1 ft Swell SW 2s Wind 15 mph ★★★★★
Thu
0–1 ft Swell N 7s Wind 10 mph ★★★★★
Fri
1–2 ft Swell SE 3s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Sat
1–2 ft Swell NW 3s Wind 3 mph ★★★★★
Sun 25 Mon 26 Tue 27 Wed 28 Thu 29 Fri 30 Sat 31
Time 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 06 09 12 15 18
Surf ft 2–3 3–4 3–4 2–3 1–2 1–2 1–2 2–3 2–3 2–3 1–2 1–2 1–2 0–1 0 0 0 0 0 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 1–2 0–1 0–1 1–2 0–1 0–1
Swell 6s 6s 5s 8s 9s 4s 4s 7s 7s 8s 3s 3s 7s 2s 3s 3s 2s 3s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 2s 3s 3s 3s 3s 4s 4s 3s 4s 4s
Wind mph 33 33 27 11 9 14 20 12 11 22 22 17 17 15 14 15 13 8 7 7 9 10 12 15 14 11 9 8 3 3 3 4 5
Tide m 4.0↑ 4.5↓ 1.9↓ 1.9↓ 0.8↑ 3.5↑ 4.9↓ 2.4↓ 2.6↓ 0.7↑ 2.9↑ 5.0↑ 3.0↓ 3.4↓ 0.8↓ 2.2↑ 4.8↑ 3.7↓ 4.1↓ 1.3↓ 1.7↑ 4.4↑ 4.3↓ 4.6↓ 2.1↓ 1.4↑ 3.7↑ 4.6↓ – – – – –
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way The Watchtower faces. Arrows point to where the swell and wind come from: an arrow pointing up means from the north. Tide is the height at North Sunderland (Northumberland) 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

The Watchtower faces north-east. Measured from the seabed, it is open to swell from NW round to SE; 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 NENNW
N
0.2 m at 9 s (swell) · 100 % reaches the beach
NW
3.0 m at 6 s (wind sea) · 23 % reaches the beach

How The Watchtower works

Swell
Best from the north-east.
Wind
Offshore is from the west; anything with north-east in it is onshore and messes it up.
Tide
all tides.
Getting there
Head off the A1 towards Seahouses. Go north out of seahouses and watch out for an old coastguard tower on the top of the sand dunes before you get to Bamburgh. Stop the car, you made it! Dont forget to check out the old Artillery bunker on the dunes!

A long headland right hander, almost a point break. Inside the Farne Islands, so relies on strong southerly swell to work. If it is 4-6 ft and from the south then there will be some great rights to be had. Looks like it should be perfect from the beach (but a strong notherly rip on big swells and ledgey sand -it is a beach break-makes it a bit fickle).

Tide times

  • Sun 13:53High4.8 m
  • Sun 19:51Low1.0 m
  • Mon 01:56High5.0 m
  • Mon 08:15Low0.7 m
  • Mon 14:27High5.0 m
  • Mon 20:29Low0.9 m
  • Tue 02:34High5.2 m
  • Tue 08:53Low0.7 m

North Sunderland (Northumberland) station, 6 km away. Heights above chart datum, UK time.

Comments

29 Jun 2005 · tompdmcewen @aol.com very good spot when the swell is right, warm in the summer but don't bother in the winter unless you have a thermal wetsuit !!!!!!!! if you want better surf go to the main beach at Bamburgh(if you go to the 2nd Carpark down the wynding you will get a good view of the waves)

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