Beaches & Swimming
A Steep Beach and a Shelving Beach Are Different Swims
The gradient at the waterline decides how the waves break, how deep it gets and how hard it is to walk back out.
Nandini Kamath
Contributing writer, Travel Near Sea
Nandini writes about harbour towns and the fishing economies inside them.
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14 articles
Beaches & Swimming
Sighting, Drift and Swimming in a Straight Line at Sea
Open water has no lane rope, and a small steering error compounds into a long detour over a few hundred metres.
Harbour Towns
Why Harbour Towns Eat Early and Shut in the Afternoon
Kitchens in a working port keep the hours of the people who work there, which are set by boats rather than by holidays.
Harbour Towns
Drying Harbours: Boats on the Mud Twice a Day
Where the tidal range exceeds the depth, the harbour empties completely, and everything about the town works around that.
Harbour Towns
Ferry Ports and Fishing Ports Are Two Different Towns
One is built around a timetable and a car park, the other around a tide and a market, and they feel nothing alike.
Harbour Towns
A Harbour After the Fleet Has Gone
Ports lose their fishing for reasons that are mostly economic and regulatory, and the town that remains works differently.
Harbour Towns
The Quay Is the Worst Place in Town to Leave a Car
Harbour parking sits at sea level for a reason, and spring tides, surge and overtopping all reach it before anywhere else.
Harbour Towns
Some Harbour Towns Have No Beach at All, and That Is Normal
Ports were sited for shelter and deep water rather than for sand, so the swimming is often a bus ride away.
Harbour Towns
Locks, Sills and Basins: Harbours That Refuse to Dry Out
Where boats have to stay afloat at every state of tide, somebody built a gate, and the gate rearranges the whole rhythm of the port.
Harbour Towns
Harbour Lights Are a Sentence You Can Learn to Read
Every light on an entrance means something specific, and from a bench on the quay at dusk the whole system becomes legible.
Harbour Towns
Winter Is When a Harbour Does Its Repairs
The boats come out, the yard fills up, and the town that looked closed is doing the work that makes the next season possible.
Harbour Towns
Who Actually Pays for a Harbour
Walls, lights, dredging and staff cost real money every year, and the fleet that used to fund them is usually much smaller than it…
Harbour Towns
Every Harbour Is Losing Depth and Somebody Has to Move the Mud
A harbour is a deliberate low-energy trap, which is exactly why sediment settles in it, and why dredging is a permanent line in the…
Harbour Towns
Aquaculture Changed More Harbours Than Tourism Did
Shellfish trestles and cage sites need sheltered water and a shore base, and where they arrived the working year stopped being…