The bodies of the couple who had taken a boat trip across the Atlantic Ocean have been found in a lifeboat nearly six weeks after they were last seen.
The bodies of a couple who had taken a boat trip across the Atlantic Ocean have been found in a lifeboat nearly six weeks after they were last seen.
British woman Sarah Packwood and her Canadian husband Brett Clibbery are believed to have abandoned their yacht and died before reaching Sable Island, near Nova Scotia, Canada, on July 12.
The couple had been reported missing on June 18 after leaving Nova Scotia on their 43-foot eco-yacht, Theros, a week earlier.
They were headed to the Azores, Portugal, 3,228 kilometers away, and the journey was expected to take 21 days.
In a Facebook post, Clibbery’s son James confirmed the couple had died, saying the last few days had been “very difficult”.
He said the couple would be “forever missed.”
“There is nothing that can fill the void left by his death, until now inexplicable,” he said.
It is unclear how the couple’s dream transatlantic crossing ended in tragedy. An investigation is ongoing, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told the BBC on Sunday (21/7).
One theory investigators are exploring is that the yacht was struck by a passing merchant vessel, according to Canadian news site Saltwire.
“The crew of the sailboat was unable to avoid the collision” or they could have been below deck with Theros on autopilot, an anonymous source told Saltwire.
The Canadian Coast Guard and military aircraft saw no wreckage or any sign of the boat, Saltwire reports.
In a video posted to their YouTube channel, Theros Adventures, the pair explained how their journey, dubbed the Green Odyssey, would rely on sails, solar panels, batteries and a repurposed electric motor from a car.
“We are doing everything we can to demonstrate that it is possible to travel without burning fossil fuels,” Clibbery said in the video, posted April 12.
“It’s probably the greatest adventure of our lives so far,” Packwood added.
The two met by chance in London in 2015 when Clibbery, a retired engineer, was preparing to donate a kidney to his sister.
They married in Canada on their yacht a year later, before saying their vows in a traditional wedding ceremony at Stonehenge in 2017, according to Packwood’s personal blog.
Their story was featured in a 2020 article “How We Met” in the British newspaper The Guardian.
Sarah Packwood, originally from Warwickshire, England, worked in Rwanda with the United Nations after the 1994 genocide and had extensive experience in humanitarian work.
In what would be their final post on June 11, the couple wrote on Facebook: “Captain Brett and First Mate Sarah set sail on the second leg of the Green Odyssey aboard the 42-foot sailboat Theros – GibSea. Powered by wind and sun. Heading east to the Azores.”
Source: Terra
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