VISITING AND COST
The Head is a nature reserve administered by the Yorkshire
Wildlife Trust so please respect it – It is no longer doable
by motor bikes and cars, but you can still walk ( or bicycle ) the
3.5 miles there and back for free. ( Total 7 miles ). There is room
for 2 or 3 cars just before the entrance to the Nature reserve if
you fancy walking all the way.( We walked and it took just under an
hour to get to the lighthouse ). See free parking waypoint
below.
THE SPIT
This stretch of coastline is made of boulder clay (boulder clay, in geology, is a deposit of clay, often full of boulders, which is formed in and beneath glaciers and ice-sheets wherever they are found, that was deposited during the Ice Age ). The clay is really soft and unstable, and is prone to being eroded by the sea. This is where '' Longshore drift '' comes into play.
LONGSHORE DRIFT is the name given to the process by which beach material is transported along the coast by the action of waves. Waves rarely hit the beach at exactly right angles to the coast, and are far more likely to hit the beach at an angle. This is because in many areas the prevailing wind controls the direction of the waves and, obviously, very few long sections of coast are dead straight for miles and miles. As waves approach a beach the base of the wave hits the sea bed. This is what causes it to topple forward and to 'break' but it also allows the wave to pick up sediment. The size of the sediment particles moved by the wave is determined by what is available on the sea bed, and by the power of the wave. More powerful waves can move heavier sediment particles. If the wave was to hit the beach at exactly right angles to the line of the coast, the water would go straight up the beach (swash) and straight back down again (backwash). The only movement of the sediment would be up the beach with the swash, and back down the beach with the backwash. When waves break on to a beach at an angle, material is pushed up the beach at the same angle by the swash, but pulled back down the beach by the backwash at ninety degrees to the coast. The sediment is moved across the beach as well as up it. When the wave runs out of energy the water starts to flow back towards the sea. Gravity pulls it straight down the beach, so the returning water follows a different path to the one it followed on the way up it. Each wave can move the sediment a little further across the beach.
At Spurn, longshore drift is Southward.
The strategic position of the sand spit, guarding the entrance
to a major waterway led to it being used as a position for shipping
beacons and lighthouses.
Historical accounts of settlements and lighthouses, particularly
accounts of their destruction and the break up of the spit have
enabled us to discover that over the last 1000 years there have
been five other 'Spurn points', ( this being the sixth ).
Each spit has grown until it has become unstable, been destroyed
and then rebuilt slightly to the west of the former one, the cycles
lasting approximately 250 years.
The current spit is nearing the end of the cycle, and despite
considerable coastal defences the neck is continually in danger of being breached. To the east lies the North Sea. This is where '' Fetch '' comes into play.
FETCH is an important factor in the formation, size and power of waves. Despite its importance, fetch is a very simple thing. In the most straightforward way, fetch is just the maximum length of open water over which the wind can blow without hitting an obstruction.i.e Spurn Point. The longer the fetch, the more powerful the waves. The maximum fetch is from the north-east, ( all the way from Europe across the North Sea ), so this is why Spurn gets such a battering.
Also, the difference from low water to high water can be as much as 7 meters, so don't forget your wellies !
TO LOG THIS CACHE.
1. Upload a photo of you or your gps at the above co-ordinates
with the green doors of the lighthouse in the background.
2. Please e-mail me the answers to the following questions by contacting me via the link to my profile at the top of this page ,
A. Which direction does maximum fetch travel ?
B. How long does a cycle usually take ? and not you on your bike !
C. Now estimate the width of the point at its narrowest, in metres.
Failure to comply with the above requests will result in log deletion. No excuses !
Special thanks go to jstead for permitting me to use some of his wording and the help getting this cache off the ground.
Also special thanks to Andrew Gibson of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust for giving me permission to place the cache
Apologies to MikeG, you know why 
.