A Canadian couple who were found dead in their life raft after a failed attempted to sail across the Atlantic Ocean have been identified.
Brett Clibbery, 70, and his wife, Sarah Packwood, 60, had set sail on June 11 from Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, intending to sail to the Azores, a group of Portuguese islands about 2,000 miles away in the middle of the Atlantic. The trip in their 42-foot-vessel was scheduled to take 21 days.
Clibbery and Packwood, of British Columbia, were reported missing a week later. On July 10, their bodies were discovered washed ashore in their inflatable lifeboat on Sable Island, about 190 miles southeast of Halifax, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
It’s remains unclear why the couple abandoned their larger boat.
Sable Island has been dubbed “the graveyard of the Atlantic” where more than 350 shipwrecks have occurred since 1583, according to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. The area usually bears the brunt of storms that travel up the Atlantic coast, often blowing sailing vessels directly into the island.
One theory investigators are pursuing is that their larger boat was hit by a passing cargo ship which didn’t see them, according to Canadian news outlet Saltwire. No wreckage of the vessel has been found. Their deaths are not considered suspicious, according to the RCMP.
The couple, who posted updates about their travels on a YouTube channel named Theros Adventures, had promoted their voyage as a “green” solution since their eco-friendly boat, also named Theros, was electric and powered by solar panels.
“They were amazing people, and there isn’t anything that will fill the hole that has been left by their so far unexplained passing,” Clibbery’s son James wrote on Facebook.
The two had met in London in 2015 and later married in British Colombia.
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