North Beach slipway (north), Bridlington

Bridlington Bay is a broad, shallow bay on the North Sea coast. The harbour, a short way south of this launch, sits in the lee of Flamborough Head, which shelters it from the south-west round to just east of north; the harbour and its approach can dry out at low water springs. The launch itself gives onto North Sands, the tidal beach fronting North Marine Drive, exposed as sand at low water. Further out in the bay lies the Smithic Bank, a shoal that gives some protection from an easterly sea but where breaking seas can develop in strong onshore easterly or south-easterly weather.

Bridlington's harbour remains a working fishing and angling port. An RNLI all-weather lifeboat has launched from South Marine Drive since 1805. To the north, the coast rises to the chalk cliffs of Sewerby and Flamborough Head. The inshore waters there, out to 2km offshore, form the Flamborough Head Special Area of Conservation and the Flamborough and Filey Coast Special Protection Area, protecting the largest mainland seabird breeding colony in the UK: more than 250,000 birds nest along this stretch of coast between March and September, including England's only mainland colony of gannets.