UPDATED from original posting on July 12:
The kindness and adventurous spirit of a Salt Spring Island couple are being remembered this week, as details of the likely deaths of sailors Brett Clibbery and Sarah Packwood at sea begin to reach friends and neighbours here.
Police in Nova Scotia said Friday, July 12 that two bodies were discovered in what they believed was the lifeboat for the sailing vessel Theros, which had been reported missing since June 18.
RCMP Halifax Regional Detachment responded to Sable Island National Park Reserve after a boat containing human remains was discovered Wednesday afternoon, July 10, in what officials said was a 10-foot inflatable. The 42-foot Gib’sea sailing vessel Theros had been reported missing one week after leaving Halifax Harbour June 11 en route to the Azores. Cause of death has not yet been released.
Island business owners Tim O’Connor and John Dolman became good friends with Packwood and Clibbery as customers of their TJ Beans Cafe; O’Connor said they were the nicest and most selfless couple anyone could ever meet, recalling Clibbery’s efforts to help them out one snowy winter.
“Brett put his car in the ditch trying to get to our place to help thaw our pipes,” said O’Connor, “and walked the rest of the way.”
Indeed, O’Connor and Dolman’s last vacation — four days in Vancouver, he said — was spent with the couple.
O’Connor said a memorial will be held at some point.
Clibbery was a licensed captain, sailing instructor and marine diesel mechanic with more than five decades’ experience on the water –– including work with BC Ferries on Salt Spring, according to the couples’ website, and Bay Ferries in New Brunswick.
Packwood was born in the U.K., and after earning an advanced degree in rural resource management and overseas development pursued a career in humanitarian aid work around the world. She had been sailing since university, notably crewing aboard the STS Lord Nelson during the 2004 European Tall Ships races.
Clibbery and Packwood met at a bus stop in England, and were married aboard their sailboat in 2016, according to the couples’ websites, tied to Kanaka Wharf in Ganges Harbour. They re-committed to one another at a hand fasting ceremony on Earth Day 2017 at Stonehenge. They moved ashore part-time the following year, first to a tiny home they built on their Isabella Point Road property and eventually into a larger house they built together in 2021.
The pair posted nearly 200 videos to their YouTube channel, chronicling their adventures together building their homes, sailing, kayaking, hiking and road-tripping in their electric vehicle.