A seven-month investigation into a sailing journey that ended with the death of a Salt Spring Island couple has concluded, officials said, with evidence pointing toward an at-sea fire having occurred aboard their vessel.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) released its report Monday, Feb. 10, which included an assessment of data collected regarding the sailing vessel Theros, reported missing in June of last year after departing Halifax Harbour en route to the Azores. The bodies of Theros crew and well-known islanders Brett Clibbery and Sarah Packwood were discovered on July 10 in a dinghy washed up on the south side of Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia; despite being fitted with an automatic identification system (AIS) that transmitted the vessel’s location as late as June 13, the Theros was never found.
In their report, investigators said one of Theros’ crew was found wearing a flotation suit that had been damaged by fire.
“The suit was melted on the left side from top to bottom,” according to the report. “The fire damage had occurred while the crew member was wearing the suit; it would not have been possible to don the suit in the damaged condition.”
The other crew member was not wearing a flotation suit, according to the TSB, although one was found in the dinghy. Investigators said the Theros had an inflatable life raft and emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) stored in the centre of the vessel near the main hatch to the cabin, while her crew planned to stow the dinghy at the vessel’s stern for the duration of the three-week voyage.
Theros’ propulsion system had been retrofitted with an electric system that incorporated a car battery, according to investigators. Neither the inflatable raft nor the EPIRB were found.
Based on information received from the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) in Halifax, the TSB had investigated the possibility of an at-sea collision having taken place. A commercial tanker had been in the area at around the same time, according to the JRCC, but an extensive effort by the TSB –– including collecting the tanker’s bridge recordings, AIS and radar data, as well as drift modelling using the location where the dinghy was found –– did not identify any link between commercial vessel traffic and Theros.
Clibbery, 70, 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, 54, 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.