According to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, ocean currents have remained steady since the last glaciation period.

Oceanic currents, red arrows indicate warm currents, cold currents in blue.
Source: www.physicalgeography.net

Water masses having different temperatures and salinity, and thus various densities, are transported over long distances, and also vertically.

Cyclic patterns can be observed:

Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. Monthly averages of surface water temperature anomalies.
Source: www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/timeseriesimeseries/AMO/

In the Pacific, the El Niño – la Niña phenomena have a shorter time period, or their observation is lacking sufficient time to get a wider picture.

Multivariate El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) index.
This index is based on six variables: sea-level pressure (P), zonal (U) and meridional (V) components of the surface wind, sea surface temperature (S), surface air temperature (A), and total cloudiness fraction of the sky (C).
Source: www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/correlation/mei.data

These wide temperature oscillations as well as horizontal and vertical currents imply that large enthalpies (energy content) are transported over long distances. Such multi-decadal phenomena influence regional weather according to periodic patterns. The Genesis (41) mention of seven plenteous years followed by seven years of famine is probably reflecting this.