THUNDER BAY — His friends in Thunder Bay are mourning the death of a former city resident during an ill-fated voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.
The remains of James Brett Clibbery, 70, and his 54-year-old wife, Sarah Packwood, were found last month in a three-metre inflatable boat on Sable Island, about 300 km southeast of Halifax.
The couple's 13-metre sailboat had been reported missing on June 18, a week after Clibbery posted a video on Facebook from aboard the Theros after it departed Nova Scotia bound for the Azores archipelago.
What happened to their boat remains a mystery, as there has been no sign of it to date.
"I was shocked, in disbelief...very saddened," Mike Chochla said Monday about learning of the couple's tragic demise.
The Thunder Bay man first met Clibbery when both were going to high school in Kenora.
"We remained good friends ever since. We both moved to Thunder Bay in the mid-to-late 70s. He was probably living here for about 20 years. He was an engineer for CP Rail before he was transferred out to BC."
Clibbery, whom Chochla knew as Brett, lived on BC's Salt Spring Island where he and his wife were building an off-grid house.
They would frequently travel through Thunder Bay where they stayed at Chochla's residence, including in June during their final road trip back to their boat in Nova Scotia.
"They were a loving couple, that's for sure. They met by chance in London, England at a bus stop, got together for tea the next day, and that was it."
Clibbery and Packwood were married in BC in 2016.
Chochla said that after reaching Portugal in their boat, they planned to hike the famous Camino de Santiago trail.
"They were pretty adventurous and a really travel-loving couple. Sarah was an international aid worker, and had worked in many parts of the world. Brett told me when he was through here that he carried a pretty good first-aid kit with him because he likes to help people that are suffering blisters and other ailments from long-distance hiking. So that gives you an indication of just how caring and kind these people were."
He was intent on following the progress of their last voyage closely through a satellite-based communication system available to the couple's family and friends.
"If you were on his email list, you could basically get daily updates and short videos, but it also pinpoints their exact location, so you could view it on a map and see exactly where they were. He sent messages out the first two days, and then that was the end of it."
Their two-masted sailboat was also powered by solar panels.
Chochla said he's only heard speculation about what might have happened to Theros but "there's nothing definitive. No trace of the boat's been found as far as I know. No debris field."
A cargo ship left Halifax harbour a short time after the couple departed.
"Brett mentioned that on his first video out on the ocean, but it was pretty far back, and I know that ship was located and investigated, and there was no damage to the ship, and the crew knew nothing of what had happened."
The RCMP and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are continuing to investigate.
