Close X
Sunday, November 10, 2024
ADVT 
National

Adventure-seeking B.C. couple were victims found on Nova Scotia island: relative

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 25 Jul, 2024 02:51 PM
  • Adventure-seeking B.C. couple were victims found on Nova Scotia island: relative

The British Columbia couple whose remains recently washed ashore on Nova Scotia's remote Sable Island have been identified as 70-year-old James Brett Clibbery and his 54-year-old wife, Sarah Packwood.

Clibbery’s sister, Lynda Spielman, said Tuesday the RCMP had confirmed their identities.

Spielman, a Calgary resident, said she's heard many theories about what happened to the adventurous couple after June 11 when they left Halifax harbour in a 13-metre sailboat en route to the Azores.

Spielman declined to speculate on what went wrong during what was intended to be a 3,200-kilometre voyage to the Portuguese archipelago, and the Mounties have said they are still investigating.

On Monday, the RCMP confirmed they had identified Clibbery's body with the help of the province's medical examiner's office, but they declined to release his name, citing privacy legislation.

The Mounties previously confirmed the couple's sailboat, Theros, was reported missing on June 18. But it wasn't until July 10 — nearly a month after they set sail — that their bodies were found in a three-metre inflatable boat on Sable Island, about 280 kilometres southeast of Halifax. 

The Theros has yet to be found. A spokesperson for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which investigates marine accidents, said the agency is still gathering information about the boat's disappearance.

Clibbery and Packwood, who lived on B.C.'s Salt Spring Island, described themselves as adventure travellers. They routinely posted details of their trips on a YouTube channel called "Theros Sailing Adventures."

The channel features videos showing sailing trips that extend from Canada's west coast to the Panama Canal, and from Central America to the Maritimes. The smiling pair can often be seen on the open ocean aboard their two-masted GibSea yacht, which featured an electric motor powered by solar panels.

“Yes they were quite a pair and will be missed,” Spielman said in an email “Theros Sailing Adventures really document their lives almost from the day they met. They will always be present with their YouTube videos. Real characters.”

In a short video posted on June 8, Packwood included images of the sailboat at the yacht club in Dartmouth, N.S., across the harbour from Halifax, where she said the couple were preparing for their "Green Odyssey" adventure.

"All being well and weather permitting, the captain and I intend to set sail in the next day or two for an ocean crossing," Packwood's message says. "I will endeavour to document our experiences along the way and will be able to publish videos when we reach land." 

The video shows the exterior of the sleek sailboat and concludes with the message, "See you on the other side," superimposed on a partly cloudy sky.

On June 11, Clibbery posted a video on Facebook showing him at the helm of Theros as the boat was about 15 kilometres off Nova Scotia's south coast, heading to the southeast at 5.5 knots.

"We're sailing away," Clibbery says, the vast sweep of the blue North Atlantic in the background. "One big ship behind us, and that came out from Halifax behind us."

Spielman said Packwood's career had focused on relief work in Sudan, Kosovo, Macedonia, Africa, Asia and Latin America. As for her brother, she said Clibbery worked as a locomotive engineer for Canadian Pacific Railway and retired at 55.

Clibbery and Packwood first met in May 2015 at a bus stop in London, where Clibbery was undergoing tests before donating a kidney to his sister Glory, who at that time lived in the U.K.

Packwood, who was working in London at the British Department for International Development, recalled her first impression of the man. "I thought Brett was so handsome, like Robert Redford," she told the London-based Guardian newspaper in October 2020. "He was very interesting and chatty."

The pair discovered a shared passion for travel and their relationship blossomed. He proposed to her in the spring of 2016 while she was visiting his home on Salt Spring Island.

"He took me on my first ever yacht trip and I loved it," Packwood said. "Brett proposed to me in the main cabin of the boat."

Their sailing adventures started the following year.

Clibbery told the Guardian he was impressed by his wife's resourcefulness. “She is an amazing lady who never lets anything get in her way," he said. "Not even months of sea sickness when we went sailing."

MORE National ARTICLES

Body found in Surrey home

Body found in Surrey home
Police say a man has been arrested and homicide investigators have been called in after a death in a Surrey neighbourhood last night. R-C-M-P say officers responded to a report of a woman with life-threatening injuries inside a home on 182A Street near Parsons Drive.

Body found in Surrey home

2 arrested in Vancouver homicide

2 arrested in Vancouver homicide
Police in Vancouver say two suspects have been arrested and released pending further investigation into a homicide in the Downtown Eastside last week.  They say officers had responded to reports of a man in medical distress in the Chinatown neighbourhood last Wednesday afternoon. 

2 arrested in Vancouver homicide

Cool air mass over southern B.C. brings in record-breaking low temperatures

Cool air mass over southern B.C. brings in record-breaking low temperatures
Environment Canada says an unseasonable cool air mass over southern B.C. has broken minimum temperature records, including one dating back about 70 years.  The forecaster says temperatures fell to 4 degrees in the Trail area on Sunday, breaking the record of 4.4 degrees set in 1954.

Cool air mass over southern B.C. brings in record-breaking low temperatures

North Vancouver's ICBC headquarters to become housing project development site

North Vancouver's ICBC headquarters to become housing project development site
The head office of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia in North Vancouver will be transformed into an urban housing development with hundreds of homes near major transit hubs.  Premier David Eby says the province has reached an agreement to buy the Crown auto insurer's waterfront headquarters with plans to develop market and below-market homes close to transit and the SeaBus to Vancouver.

North Vancouver's ICBC headquarters to become housing project development site

Gurjot Singh Bhatti arrested for stolen vehicle

Gurjot Singh Bhatti arrested for stolen vehicle
The vehicle was later relocated abandoned in Richmond, and the driver was arrested nearby with the assistance of Richmond RCMP Gang Enforcement Team (RGET) and Vancouver Police Department Gang Crime Unit (GCU). The driver was identified as 20-year-old Gurjot Singh Bhatti.

Gurjot Singh Bhatti arrested for stolen vehicle

More housing to come near transit hubs

More housing to come near transit hubs
Premier David Eby and Transport Minister Rob Fleming are expected to make an announcement about more homes being built near transit today. There’s no word yet on what exactly the announcement is.

More housing to come near transit hubs