[dr_lew]

I'm thinking that what the satellite detected are mostly longer wavelength waves - several hundred feet - that would not be perceived as a "wall of water", but a gradual swell.

[Calvin Locke]

I thought the QE2 a few years back, got hit bow-on by a 90-100 ft wave, based on the fact that it went over the bridge.

It was the middle of the night and nobody was on deck.

That wave was said to have originated in a storm/hurricane some hundreds of miles to the South.