Why when standing on some west facing beaches does the sun vanish before it appears to drop into the sea?

Question

I believe this has something to do with objects between the far horizon (sun) and observer such as mountain ranges that are beyond the immediate visible horizon. In Western Australia the sun appears to drop into the sea, presumably because there is nothing but ocean to the west. In the UAE looking towards the Gulf the sun vanishes whilst at 15-20 degs above the horizon, ie it never appears to drop into the Ocean - but why is this?. I am trying to explain this to a 9 year old so please keep the physics simple......

Answer 1

There shouldn't be anything too complicated about it. Looking towards a clear western horizon, the sun should appear to sink below it. The only thing that can prevent this is some physical object directly blocking sunlight from reaching the observer. I can only assume that there is some repeating weather pattern which produces cloud over the sea every day.