HUMBOLDT, Calif. — A British environmentalist attempting to be the first woman to row across the Pacific Ocean alone was rescued by the Coast Guard just 90 miles off the California coast after rough seas overturned her boat.

Roz Savage's boat used a satellite phone to contact a friend after her boat rolled over several times Wednesday.

Coast Guard members in Humboldt Bay then sent a ship and an airplane to find her, and a helicopter lifted her to land Thursday night.

"The weather was just really really nasty," said her spokeswoman, Nicole Bilodeau.

"She encountered really high seas, really high winds, dreadful weather, and everything on board was wet."

Her souped-up 24-foot-long rowboat is named the Brocade after her corporate sponsor, San Jose-based Brocade Communications Systems Inc.

Her journey is intended to raise awareness of marine conservation efforts.

Savage hit her head when her boat rolled over, and there was a little bleeding and pain, but nothing serious, Bilodeau said,

Savage has since undergone medical tests, and seemed to be in good shape, Bilodeau said.

"I intend to carry on, preferably from where I left off, but failing that, then from wherever the Brocade has drifted to between now and then," Savage wrote yesterday on her Web site.

Savage, who previously crossed the Atlantic in 103 days, had planned to cross the Pacific in stages.

She left Crescent City on Aug. 12, and planned to cover the 2,300 miles to Hawai'i over two to three months, then the 6,700 miles to Australia by 2009.