John Campbell’s North Pacific Rescue

When a North Pacific gale rolled April Alice, John Campbell relied on preparation, an inReach SOS, and expert rescue seamanship to stay alive.

By
Pamela Bendall
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Disabled April Alice. (Photo/ U.S. Coast Guard)

Clip on your safety tether. Far out in the North Pacific, solo sailor John Campbell was about to face the kind of ordeal most mariners hope never to encounter. The Vancouver Island, British Columbia sailor was voyaging from Hilo, Hawaii, to Vancouver aboard his Vancouver 27, April Alice, when an otherwise familiar passage became a nightmare. I have heard and read many accounts of survival at sea; few compare with his.

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Pamela Bendall
Pamela Bendall
https://www.pamelabendall.com/
Pamela Bendall has an extensive nautical background with over 200,000 miles of ocean adventures since she began sailing in 1980. In 1986, Pamela and her former husband and two young boys ages 4,10 circumnavigated the Pacific to New Zealand and Japan and most of the islands in between using only a sextant and mathematical reduction tables. She began sailing offshore solo in 2008, taking her boat Precious Metal from Victoria, Canada to Mexico, Peru, Galapagos and throughout Central America. Pamela has her Masters 60 ton Captains license, CYA Seamanship and Navigation Certification, and owned and operated her own sailing charter business Precious Yacht Charters in northern British Columbia and Alaska. She has extensive ocean racing experience including the Victoria-Maui Race and Marblehead and was Chairperson of the Vic-Maui from 2002-2008. She has authored two sailing-related books: Kids for Sail, and What Was I Thinking: Adventures of a Woman Sailing Solo. Pamela and her partner Henry Robinson are currently living aboard their Fountaine Pajot 43-ft. catamaran in Central America and Mexico for Canadian winters and aboard their 40-ft. Ocean Alexander Quetzal in British Columbia, during Canadian summers.

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