John Campbell, a 73-year-old experienced sailor from British Columbia, has recounted his harrowing rescue from the Pacific Ocean after a violent storm disabled his sailboat. The ordeal unfolded hundreds of miles off the Oregon coast, where Campbell faced wind gusts exceeding 50 knots and waves towering up to 30 feet.
A Lifetime of Seafaring
Campbell, who has spent decades at sea, has swum alongside whale sharks off Baja Mexico, sailed through a lightning storm near Hawaii, and toasted a solo crossing of the equator with champagne. However, the recent storm tested his limits like never before.
The Storm Hits
Campbell departed Hilo, Hawaii, on April 30 aboard his pocket cruiser, the April Alice, bound for Vancouver Island. Several days into the crossing, his brother warned him of a cold front with powerful winds moving south from Alaska. Despite hoping to avoid the worst, Campbell was caught in the storm's grip.
“All of a sudden it reached out and wanted to include me in the party,” Campbell said. Winds escalated rapidly, and waves rose to mast height. He reduced sail until none remained, then decided to lie a-hull, a tactic where the vessel drifts with sails down and helm lashed. But conditions worsened, with breaking waves slamming the boat repeatedly.
“It was like a wrecking ball,” Campbell recalled. “It just slams you on the side.” Every five to ten minutes, a wave crashed into the boat, tossing him across the cabin. “Each time we were hit, it sounded and felt like a cannonball smashing into April Alice’s side.”
Rescue at Sea
The boat was disabled, but Campbell survived thanks to the U.S. Coast Guard and the cruise ship Silver Whisper, which answered the distress call. “They didn’t stop working,” Campbell said of the Coast Guard. “They just kept looking for what they called assets and they found a cruise ship whose captain said ‘I’ll do it.'”
The April Alice had been Campbell’s home for a decade and his travel companion for 17 years. Named by the previous owner for his mother and her birth month, Campbell kept the name, saying, “It was too good.”
Campbell is grateful for his rescue and reflects on the experience with a mix of relief and awe. The storm, he said, was unlike anything he had encountered in his years at sea.
