The Army took him away from sailing and Seattle after high school. Twenty-five years of ministry followed as John preached in Texas, California and Oregon and then he began teaching college. Eventually he moved to Burbank, California where he introduced his children to sailing. They took ASA courses together from Marina Sailing and started sailing out of the Channel Islands where they chartered O’days and Catalinas.

“We had some great sailing adventures in the Channel Islands,” he recalls. “I remember splitting the crew up after anchoring. Half would start the grill and the other half would roll over the side to find something to put on it. Seafood doesn’t get much fresher than that!”

Then McKeel joined the faculty of a Korean University in Seoul to teach English. He also had a very popular Korean radio program. Laughing he says, “No, it was in English. We did old time radio dramas to teach English in the most wonderful sound studio. We had every sound effect imaginable, but we just didn’t have enough people who could speak good English. I remember one program where I had to play three men and two women!”

He returned to the states two years ago and bought an O’day 222 in Phoenix, Arizona. “Sailing was more than a hobby. It became my lifeline. I could raise the main, slip away from the marina and watch my troubles gently roll away in my wake. Hardly a day went by that I wasn’t on the water.”

It’s not easy being a sailor in Phoenix, but there are some wonderful lakes and the Sea of Cortez is just across the Mexican border to the south and the California coast is to the west. “I became a ‘trailer sailor.’ San Carlos, Mexico has to be the best-kept secret in North American sailing. The winds are wonderful, the anchorages charming and the Mexican people are so friendly,” McKeel reports.

“The ASA gave me a solid foundation,” he says. “My son and I had a great father-son experience taking the basic sailing class together, and the ‘Coastal Navigation’ course gave me confidence.”

Now John is a member of both the ASA and the US Coast Guard Auxiliary. He is going to be the administrator for the Coast Guard Auxiliary’s “Sailing Fundamentals” class in Phoenix this July. “I think it’s a great match up between the ASA and the Auxiliary.” The ASA standard textbook, Sailing Fundamentals, is published jointly. “The enthusiasm that the Auxiliary volunteers bring to the classroom portion of ‘Sailing Fundamentals’ is infectious and the professionalism that ASA instructors bring to the on-the-water section makes for a perfect pairing.”