海洋岛屿 32

An interesting shot, but not what the team were after

So why were there no big waves?

There's no land between here and Kamchatka, 3,000 miles away 3000

And it's funny that the waves that arrive here

start off around Japan, around the east coast of Russia

And when a storm hits these places

it whips up the sea, generating swell

It's rather like throwing a pebble into a pool

The ripples radiate outwards which

when they reach land, make waves

So if the size of these waves was anything to go by

Japan and Russia were having some unusually mild winter weather

And that was more than you could say for Pohnpei

And there were still no big waves

The only good news was that the housing was still working

and remained watertight

despite being soundly tested both below and above the water

And then, when the team thought things couldn't get any worse

If conditions got any calmer here

we'd probably have small boys out sailing their toy boats out on this millpond!

I mean, we came for 12-foot barrelling waves

and we've got what a sort of gentle riffle at the moment

Time to check the swell charts

There was better news on the Russian front -

a big storm sending swell Pohnpei's way