It was quite clear today and I noticed a couple of interesting things as I looked towards the horizon. The horizon appeared to have a roughness rather than flat and the islands in the far distance seemed to be floating. It was windy today and I considered the possibility that the roughness was due to the waves. This seemed unlikely because there have been other days when it has been windy and the horizon appeared as smooth as usual. When I got home this afternoon, I looked through binoculars and saw the roughness, when magnified, actually looked like plumes of gas churning as they rose. It was quite chilly here today, and the ocean temperature was likely significantly warmer than the air temperature. This leads me to think that what I was seeing was probably due to warm air rising off the water. This could also explain why the islands looked like they were floating. It was probably an effect much like that which occurs when the sun heats a road surface and it looks like there is water reflecting up ahead.
While sitting out on the breakwater today, I watched the wind. More precisely, I watched the effect of the wind on the water. Down on the water near the shore, the wind did not seem very steady. It was interesting to watch the ripples mark the progress of a gust of wind blowing across the surface. Occasionally it looked like there were pretty hard down drafts. I could not figure out why the air movement would be so irregular. Perhaps this area happened to be in an eddy created by the prevailing wind as it moved over the buildings and land.