When is the best time during the day to photograph the sea and coastline? All landscape photographers agree on the golden hour. This is in the early morning and late afternoon, half hour before and after sunset or sunrise .
During the above times the natural light is soft and colourful and highlights and dark shadows are more suppressed than at midday`s strong hardlights and dark shadows.
But can you photograph scenes at other time of the day? Not preferable, but you can if there are clouds in the sky and then focus less on the sky. Using a polarising filter do improve reflections and cloud clarity.