January Gulf Stream Weather

GONZALEZ Sailors returned home to their family friends today after 2 weeks of training at sea to kick off the new year. We sailed in several operating areas up and down the East Coast in both warm weather and cold for the month of January. One of the more interesting weather phenomena we observed occured while crossing the Gulf Stream off the Cape Hatteras NC coast. Although the temperature outside was in the low 40s, we recorded a sea surface temperature of 76F in the Gulf Stream. With relative winds more than 30 knots over the bow, the weather outside the ship was bitter cold. The temperature differential between the air and sea though almost made it look like the ocean was boiling. As it was close to dusk when I took some pictures, the camera didn't capture the full effect, but it was quite a strange phenomena to see.