A writing group member is working on a poem about walking along the ocean beach in solitude. She needs single words to describe how the ocean smells in the early morning .. besides .. fishy or briny. 

I'm reading "The Only Life that Mattered" about pirates and even though the setting is on the sea most of the time .. the examples I noticed in the book were "hint of the ocean" and "smell of the harbor".

Is it even possible to define in words something our imaginations can recreate so well without any senses? 

A song from our youth can evoke memories of touchstone events in our lives.  Think of the song that is played for "the" dance at the prom.  Can you hear it? Do you get an olfactory sensation - the perfume or aftershave of your partner.  The sound and smell of hope and anxiety. Now picture yourself in a beach chair with the salty breeze, the seagulls arguing and the waves crashing?  Music in your earplugs, Under the Boardwalk?  Now inhale, that is the smell of the ocean.