Was it a freaque wave?

This is a follow-up to the previous post regarding the capsizing of the whale-watching boat. This article in the Province, theprovince.com, by  Jeff Lee of PostMedia News, provided a eyewitness account as told to a rescuer, Frank, who recounted:

“They were saying they were looking at the seals and they saw this real big wave coming, bigger than the rest,” Frank said. “It brought them up and they fell over and just started tumbling, over and over. 

“The next thing they know the boat is full of water and they were all rushing out. The only thing they could see was the life raft, so they all swam for the life raft.”

Now here's a quite good description of wave happening: they can see the wave coming! Clearly there was no time for them to react and prepare when the wave hit them. I have two questions regarding this case: 1). They can see the wave coming, did the wave make any noise? and 2). Is this a freaque wave or just a regular large wave?