Question 1062Navigation General

The correct answer is A) distant winds. Swell is the rise and fall of the ocean's surface caused by distant winds, which generate waves that travel across the ocean. The distant winds create swells that can travel thousands of miles before reaching the shore. This is different from local storms (answer D), which generate chop and short-period waves in the immediate area. The pull of the moon (answer C) causes tides, not swell. Fetch (answer B) refers to the distance over which the wind blows, which contributes to the size of the waves, but it is the distant winds that actually generate the swell.