DJDirtyMoney
Bluelighter
Yes your understanding of how heat is transferred is correct in a sense. Since water has more mass that air, it take much more to heat is to the same temperature. This also is why water temperature does not fluctuate as much as air temperature. So during the night when air temperature drops a noticeable amount ocean temperature may only change a few °F. So yes during an average day air temperature would be greater than the water temperature but during the night time hours this switches when the ocean now becomes warmer than the surrounding air. This is for tropical areas around the equator, up here in Canada only during cold winter months the ocean is warmer than air temperature SOME days; This is because of the ocean currents coming up the western coast of North America from Hawaii and California. California or Miami might be suitable for this but I don't live there nor do I have the money to test this. Gotta love being a poor student! Anyways hopefully my lecture in Geography didn't bore you to death haha.
