The bodies of two sailors who planned to sail from Nova Scotia to the Azores using green energy were found washed ashore at a Canadian national park this month, four weeks after they were last seen, authorities said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police responded to calls on July 10 that a 10-foot inflatable lifeboat containing human remains had been discovered on Sable Island National Park Reserve, according to a news release from the agency.
Authorities did not identify the remains, but said they believed they were those of a 70-year-old man and a 60-year-old woman from British Columbia. A Facebook post by the man’s son, James Clibbery, later identified them as James Brett Clibbery and his wife, Sarah Justine Packwood, who had left Halifax Harbor in Nova Scotia on June 11 bound for the Azores. They were reported missing June 18.
“The past few days have been very hard,” the younger Clibbery said in the post, adding that DNA tests would be carried out to confirm their identities. “With all the news, it is hard to remain hopeful.”
“There isn’t anything that will fill the hole that has been left by their, so far unexplained, passing,” he said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it was investigating the deaths. A spokesperson for the agency did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.
Sable Island is a “thin crescent of shifting sand” that is about 180 miles southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Canadian government said, adding that the area is widely known for its variety of wildlife and its proximity to more than 350 shipwrecks.
The couple had chronicled much of their sailing activities and travels on social media.
In a video on their YouTube channel, Theros Adventures, the elder Clibbery said they had named their trip to the Azores “The Green Odyssey” to show it was possible to travel without burning fossil fuels. Their 42-foot GibSea sailboat was powered by electricity and solar energy, the couple said.
“It is to show that you can travel, and you can do long distances without burning fossil fuels, without climbing onto a plane and filling the air with carbon dioxide,” Clibbery said.
In their final post on social media on June 11, Clibbery, wearing a bright orange jacket with his silver hair tossing in the wind, described how the trip was just beginning.
With his hands steady on the helm, he took note of their speed and the distance they had so far traveled. Clibbery then looked at the camera and said with a smile, “We’re sailing.”