Neil Ashby Oct 31, 2019:

Swell is too gentle, IMO.
Why not somthing like:
".....as they crash against the hull and are pulverised into a spray that rains back down on and covers the deck, misting the whole vessel."

S. Kathryn Jiménez Boyd (asker) Oct 31, 2019:

Thanks everyone Thank you everyone for your contributions. I ended up using "swell", I liked it best in this context. In the end, I translated this sentence as: “This frozen wind blows fiercely, whistling like a blizzard in a gorge, but unlike anything we have ever seen: the snow mixes with the waves as they crash against the hull and are pulverised into a spray, and this swell floods the deck, misting the whole vessel."

Taña Dalglish Oct 31, 2019:

https://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=zar...
zarpazo lashing, beating n, i.e. the waves/water lashing against the hull and innundating/flooding the deck.

S. Kathryn Jiménez Boyd (asker) Oct 31, 2019:

I know that "blow" is what is in the dictionary, but it doesn't sound right to me to say a "blow" floods a deck. There has to be another word that makes more sense given the context.