"Stay happy and you'll be perfectly fine" - Jack Norris

Swell is coming

The first worshippers have arrived at the point to contemplate the infinite mystery of the interaction between brain and ocean waves...
The first worshippers have arrived at the point to contemplate the infinite mystery of the interaction between brain and ocean waves...

Hello Friends,

Since around midnight the swell period setting has started to shoot upward. As of about 0900 it had increased to nearly 10 seconds. The same pattern is showing on the buoys north of us. Average period up at Byron is getting close to 11 sec. Size of the swell at sea is still a touch under 2 metres off the Sydney coast. It’s up to 3 metres at Byron though.

Dee Why point is looking relatively marginal, but then again it’s not one of the first spots you’d check when the swell’s out of the east. One such that is worth a look usually is Manly, but I’ve had a text message in this am that says the middle of the beach is around the 3 foot mark and “a bit messy”.

As many of you know, I’ve got my mitts on a Nikon D3 professional DSLR and a fast 300mm telephoto lens, so I’m going to head out shortly and grab some more pics from around the place.

Wind’ll be offshore through the day and the next morning tide is a high at 1123. Sadly for my photographic aspirations, the skies are set to be overcast and periodically showery.

Looks as though we should have waves for the next week, but if you had to pick a peak day or days it’d be tomorrow into Tuesday I’d say.

Now here’s the kind of thing I like to see in the Marine forecast:

Synoptic Situation
A high pressure system to the east of Tasmania extends a ridge along the New South Wales coast. A deep low near Norfolk Island is moving southeast and will generate an increasing SE ocean swell Sunday and Monday particularly over northern parts of the coast. A complex low system over the Bight will move slowly east bringing westerly winds to coastal parts for the forecast period.

And for those of us in Sydney, this looks okay

Sydney Coastal Waters, Broken Bay to Port Hacking and 60nm seawards:
Sunday until midnight: Wind: NW 10/15 knots, increasing to 15/20 knots in the afternoon.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres rising to 1.5 to 2 metres.Swell: E/SE 2 to 2.5 metres.
Monday: Wind: W/NW 13/18 knots.Sea: 1 to 1.5 metres. Swell: E 2 to 2.5 metres, decreasing
Tuesday: Wind: W’ly 10/20 knots.