This 'image' of the North Atlantic is actually a composite of hundreds of AVHRR images from the week of June 13, 1988. These temperatures are of the surface of the ocean. The warmest temperatures are dark red (85 F) and the coldest are grey (32 F). The arrows show the predominate surface currents of the North Atlantic.
As you can see, the major flow of water in the Atlantic is in a clockwise direction. This huge area of rotating water is better known as the North Atlantic Gyre. If you were to drop a bottle in the Gulfstream off the New Jersey coast, it would PROBABLY eventually make its way across the Atlantic toward Ireland or England in 5 months or so. If you were lucky, the bottle may find its way down the coast of Africa, then head west just north of the Equator and turn northwest until it washed back up onto the beaches of the eastern United States. This journey would take nearly three years to complete.
If you would like to see the area off of the New Jersey coast in more detail,
click here.