Spindrift
Spindrift (more rarely spoondrift) is the spray blown from cresting waves during a gale. This spray, which "drifts" in the direction of the gale, is one of the characteristics of a wind speed of 8 Beaufort and higher at sea. In Greek and Roman mythology, Leucothea was the goddess of spindrift. Terminology. "Spindrift" is a southern English word, "Spoondrift" a northern or Scottish word. "Spindrift" or s"poondrift" is also a term for fine sand or snow that is blown off by the wind. In the 1940s U.S. Navy, "spindrift" and "spoondrift" appear to have been used for different phenomena , as in the following record by the captain of the USS Barb (SS-220): "Visibility – which had been fair on the surface after moonrise – was now exceedingly poor due to spoondrift. Would that it were only the windblown froth of spindrift rather than the wind-driven cloudburst of water lashing the periscope exit eyepiece."