March is the month the arithmetic of this coast stops making intuitive sense. Dakar is closer to the equator than Barbados, and around the middle of the month the sea bottoms out at 19 to 22°C.
The reason is the Canary Current, which runs south along West Africa and pulls cold water up from below. It is the same upwelling that makes the Canaries cooler than their latitude, carried a thousand kilometres further down. It peaks now, at the tail of the north-shore season.
Swell is still arriving, less often than in February, and the reefs still work. The decision this month is whether you want the last of the winter enough to spend it in a 3/2 with a hood on the windy mornings.
