Portwrinkle Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Gotta be straight with you on this one. We're looking at a 16-day window for Portwrinkle, and the honest truth is, it's a pretty bleak picture for a wave hunt. There's no proper stand-out session on the cards, so we're going to have to sift through some real duds to find anything remotely rideable.

First off, the setup. Portwrinkle is a reef break that's inconsistent, and even though it's fairly exposed to a SW swell, the available energy just isn't cutting it for the most part. The combined swell energy is weak to moderate at best, with readings like 46 and 74 in the early days. We've got a lot of cross and cross-off winds from the WNW and W, blowing at 15 to 19 mph, which is too much for the small wave heights we're dealing with. For the first week and a half, from Tuesday the 15th right through to Tuesday the 22nd, the reports are all pretty much "poor surf conditions" with scores of zero. It's a write-off. The water temp anomaly isn't mentioned, so we'll just say it's about average for the time of year.

Now, there is a tiny glimmer, and it's a weird one. On Wednesday the 23rd of September, early morning, things look interesting. We get a glassy-calm wind from the ENE at just 3 mph, and the swell ticks up to 2ft from the WSW with a very long period of 15 seconds. That long period groundswell is a powerful thing, and the combined energy jumps to 242, which is a moderate reading. For that spot, it's about as good as it gets in this window. The report even says "surfable waves but very ordinary conditions," which for Portwrinkle right now is a win. It won't be big, but it could be clean with those glassy conditions. That's your best bet, but it's on the smaller side and the break inconsistency means you might wait a while for a set.

Honestly, mate, for the rest of the period, you're looking at onshore breezes, cross-shore chops, and tiny waves. The wind swings around but never really settles into a clean offshore for any significant swell. The end of the month gets gusty easterlies over 22 mph, which just messes up the piddly little waves completely. There's just no consistent, quality swell with the right wind to make this place shine.

The best of a bad bunch is the morning of the 23rd of September. It's not a standout in any real sense, but it's the only time the stars nearly align.

Rusty.

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