The bodies of Briton Sarah Packwood and her Canadian husband Brett Clibbery have been found on a washed-up life raft nearly six weeks after embarking on a sailing trip across the Atlantic Ocean.
The couple set off from Nova Scotia on their 13-meter (42-foot) eco-friendly yacht, Theros, and were last seen on July 12 when their life raft was discovered on Sable Island near Nova Scotia. Sarah Packwood and Brett Clibbery were reported missing on June 18, having departed Nova Scotia a week earlier with plans to sail to the Azores, roughly 3,228 kilometers away, a journey expected to take 21 days.
Brett Clibbery’s son, James, confirmed the couple’s deaths in a Facebook post, expressing the profound grief felt by their family: “There isn’t anything that will fill the hole that has been left by their, so far unexplained passing.”
The circumstances of their tragic end remain unclear, and an investigation is underway, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the BBC on Sunday.
One theory being explored is that the yacht may have been struck by a passing cargo ship that did not notice the collision. Canadian news website Saltwire reported an anonymous source suggested that the crew might have been unable to avoid the collision or could have been below deck with Theros on automatic pilot.
The Canadian coastguard and military aircraft have not located any wreckage or signs of the boat, Saltwire reported.
In a video posted to their YouTube channel, Theros Adventures, the couple detailed their ambitious “Green Odyssey” trip, aiming to demonstrate sustainable travel using sails, solar panels, batteries, and an electric engine repurposed from a car. “We’re doing everything we can to show that you can travel without burning fossil fuels,” Clibbery said in the video from April 12. Packwood added, “It’s probably the biggest adventure of our lives so far.”
Their journey began with a chance meeting in London in 2015, when Packwood was preparing to donate a kidney to her sister, and Clibbery, a retired engineer, was visiting the city. They married a year later on their yacht in Canada and reaffirmed their vows in a traditional handfasting ceremony at Stonehenge in 2017, as detailed in Packwood’s personal blog.
