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The Watchtower

★★★★★Small
Point break Faces E all tides Offshore West Best swell South East
Surf now0–1ft0.3 m at 4 s from the SE, wind sea 0.3 m from the SW
Wind8mphS · cross-off · gusts 13
Tide 2.2mRising · high 21:51 (3.9 m). Works all tides.

Seven days

best session each day · swipe
Sun
0–1 ft Swell SE 4s Wind 8 mph ★★★★★
Mon
0–1 ft Swell SW 2s Wind 14 mph ★★★★★
Tue
0 ft Swell N 7s Wind 6 mph ★★★★★
Wed
0 ft Swell N 5s Wind 7 mph ★★★★★
Thu
1–2 ft Swell N 5s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Fri
1–2 ft Swell NE 7s Wind 7 mph ★★★★★
Sat
1–2 ft Swell W 3s Wind 17 mph ★★★★★
Sun 4 Mon 5 Tue 6 Wed 7 Thu 8 Fri 9 Sat 10
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 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0–1 1–2 0–1 1–2 1–2 1–2 1–2 0–1 0–1 0 1–2 0–1 0–1 0
Swell 2s 2s 5s 3s 3s 4s 7s 7s 2s 5s 5s 5s 2s 2s 8s 8s 4s 4s 5s 5s 6s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 7s 3s 3s 3s 3s
Wind mph 12 14 16 17 20 13 6 6 7 5 4 7 9 11 11 12 14 15 17 15 8 16 13 7 9 16 16 17 20 19 15
Tide m 2.6↑ 1.9↑ 3.5↑ 3.8↓ 2.5↓ 2.0↑ 1.3↑ 2.6↑ 4.1↑ 3.2↓ 1.7↓ 1.2↓ 1.8↑ 4.1↑ 3.9↓ 1.8↓ 1.5↓ 1.1↑ 3.7↑ 4.5↓ 2.2↓ 2.1↓ 0.7↑ 3.1↑ 4.8↓ 2.7↓ 2.8↓ 0.6↓ 2.4↑ 4.8↑ 3.3↓
Rating ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★

Surf is the face height at the beach after the swell is filtered for the way The Watchtower faces. Arrows show where the swell and wind are heading. 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 east. Swell inside the lit window reaches the beach; anything from behind the headlands scores nothing, however big the buoy says it is.

NESWfaces ESESW
SE
0.3 m at 4 s (swell) · 47 % reaches the beach
SW
0.3 m at 2 s (wind sea) · blocked, 0 %

How The Watchtower works

Swell
Best from the south east.
Wind
West is offshore.
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 21:51High3.9 m
  • Mon 04:24Low1.5 m
  • Mon 10:58High3.9 m
  • Mon 17:09Low1.9 m
  • Mon 23:22High4.0 m
  • Tue 05:53Low1.3 m
  • Tue 12:22High4.1 m
  • Tue 18:25Low1.7 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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