British eco-adventurer on ‘green odyssey’ across the Atlantic found dead in lifeboat off Canadian coast

A couple who set off on an “green odyssey” across the Atlantic have been found dead in a lifeboat off the coast of Canada.

Sarah Packwood, 54, and Brett Clibbery, 70, had left Halifax in Nova Scotia on June 11 on a 42-foot solar-powered sailing yacht – but the alarm had been raised a week later when contact was lost with the vessel.

Packwood, from Warwick, and Clibbery, from Canada, had been attempting to sail to the Azores, a mid-Atlantic Portuguese archipelago, according to Canadian police.

The trip from Nova Scotia to the islands should have taken an estimated 21 days – but on July 10, a liferaft containing the couple’s bodies washed up on Canada’s Sable Island.

Clibbery’s son James confirmed the couple’s death on a recent social media post, in which he said they would be “forever missed”.

He wrote: “The past few days have been very hard.

“My father James Brett Clibbery, and his wife, Sarah Justine Packwood have regrettably passed away.

“There is still an investigation, as well as a DNA test to confirm, but with all the news, it is hard to remain hopeful.”

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He added: “There isn’t anything that will fill the hole that has been left by their, so far unexplained passing.”

It remains unclear how the couple got into trouble on their 2,000-mile trip to the Azores – but it’s understood Clibbery had been carrying a Garmin GPS device which produced a final signal on June 13 – around 40 miles south-west of Sable Island.

The island – a tiny, flat stretch of land off Canada’s east coast – has earned itself the grim moniker “the Atlantic’s graveyard” due to the number of shipwrecks in and around its shallow coastal waters; some 350 have been recorded since its discovery in the 1520s.

The pair’s ill-fated journey which ended on the island had been their first since converting their yacht to a solely solar- and wind-powered vessel.

Packwood had posted a final message on social media before the duo set out on their voyage which read: “We aim to sail across the ocean, all being well, fair winds and following seas with us!”

The couple had been recording their adventures online – and their followers have expressed their condolences and paid tribute to the pair in the aftermath of their bodies’ discovery.

In the videos, Clibbery had spoken at length about his DIY conversion of the yacht to renewable power – but experts expressed fears that the additional weight from solar panels and batteries could have made the vessel unstable.

Medical teams are still working on an autopsy of the duo – while if any wreckage from their yacht ever emerges, it will be examined to ascertain why the couple had to abandon ship.

Speaking anonymously to the Telegraph, a veteran Nova Scotia sailor understood to be close to the investigation said: “While they do not have conclusive proof, they suspect the sailboat whose crew washed up dead on Sable Island was struck by a bulk carrier only a few days after departing Halifax.

“The sailboat crew were either unable to avoid collision or they could have been down below with Theros on automatic pilot.”