Attempted Atlantic Crossing Ends Tragically in Nova Scotia

Last month, a married couple set out on an ambitious voyage from Canada to the Azores. After leaving Nova Scotia, Sarah Packwood and Brett Clibbery were reported missing a week after their departure. Until very recently, their whereabouts have been a mystery. Now, Clibbery’s son James Clibbery has provided an update, and it’s quietly heartbreaking. On Facebook, Clibberry wrote that the couple “have regrettably passed away.”

“I have only just spoken to the coroner today,” he added. “I am so very sorry to the people who were friends of them. They were amazing people, and there isn’t anything that will fill the hole that has been left by their, so far unexplained passing.”

As Rachel Hall reported at The Guardian, a life raft from Packwood and Clibbery’s yacht, the Theros, was found on Sable Island, a remote stretch of land located south of Cape Breton Island. Authorities are currently investigating what happened to Theros and the couple’s cause of death. As the CBC reported earlier this month, Packwood and Clibbery had embarked on several large-scale trips prior to this one, and regularly documented those trips on YouTube.

Scientists Discover Preserved Shipwreck in Lake Huron

The Ironton has been underwater for over a century

The island where the remains of Packwood and Clibbery were discovered is home to a lot of maritime history. Writing for the BBC in 2022, Tim Johnson commented that Sable Island “has long loomed large in the imagination of sailors and adventurers.” That may be due to one of the bleaker aspects of its history — that it is, in Johnson’s words, “one of the greatest graveyards of the Atlantic, surrounded by the permanent resting place of some 350 shipwrecks.” The tragic end to Packwood and Clibbery’s voyage is, unfortunately, the latest piece of the island’s unsettling story.