Thanks Ric. What does "cloud cover" mean? What would the base of the clouds be? Under AE's reported altitude of 1000 feet? Or over?
For those accustomed to reading such things, using what is in the log and doing a few quick computations to find some of the missing values, in present day (or nearly present day) terms, the Hourly weather report would today look something like this
10SCT 9 008/81/77/0703/979
(OK...not really 'Today', I left it in the SA format. I've never liked the new METAR coding, but if someone is more accustomed to the ICAO way of things and wants it I'll convert it.)
The 2/10 to 3/10 cloud cover is today termed to be 'Scattered' (as Ric said). In basic terms it means the sky is 20 to 30 percent covered by clouds. In this case, it indicates that the clouds were cumuliform in nature which means they were lower clouds. There were no actual recorded values for cloud height. In THIS case, however, with the reported temperature and pressure ...and my calculated dewpoint value ... it is predictable that the bases were probably (roughy 85% probability) somewhere in the vicinity of 900 to 1000 ft.
I can say from experience that, with bright sunshine (as it appears there was at the time), the lower the clouds then the darker the shadows they cast on the water surface ...and therefore the more difficult it becomes to differentiate between cloud shadow and land mass.
The visibility was 9 (nautical, presumably) miles / millibar air pressure of 1008mb/ temp 81F (27C) / Dewpoint 77F (25C)/ Winds 070 (ENE) at 03Kts / Air Pressure 29.79 In. Hg
Comparing this observation to the earlier and later observations that day, it does appear to have been a fairly stable weather system. Temps climb and fall as would thus be expected, as well as changes in pressure and and winds throughout the period shown. Although it is interesting to note a 4 degree temperature/dewpoint spread with relatively light winds. This not always, but sometimes, could indicate the possibility of fog and/or haze...there are other factors involved though. The visibility was reported to be 8 to 9 miles throughout the entire period, so it does not appear to have been a factor.
If anything, conditions only got better as the clouds are later recorded as changing from cumulus to higher alto cumulus to cirrus ...which occur at much higher altitudes. Not to mention a steady rise in atmospheric air pressure.
LTM,
....tb