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Eco-Crap, Travels

From the Heart Of Stone Department comes this report:

A couple who embarked on an eco-friendly voyage across the Atlantic were found dead in a lifeboat after seemingly being forced to abandon their yacht.

Brett Clibbery, 70, and British woman Sarah Justine Packwood, 54, were reported missing after setting off from Nova Scotia in Canada in their 42ft sailing boat Theros on June 11 – and were found last week in a washed-up liferaft.

The couple’s remains were found on Sable Island, nicknamed the ‘Graveyard of the Atlantic‘, 180 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia, the liferaft having washed ashore. They had intended to sail to the Azores 900 miles west of Portugal.

Thanks, but if I am going to cross the ocean by sea, I’ll use one of these, despite the effect on Global Warming Climate Cooling Change©:

…as long as it’s not captained by someone named “Edward Smith”, because the last time that happened, we ended up with a shitty James Cameron movie (is there another kind?).

11 comments

  1. People sail across the Atlantic all the time. They did not know what they were doing or had very bad luck – and did habe proper emergency communication gear.

    2. Correct. They had tinkered with their boat and done some pretty stupid things from what I heard, like installing a battery pack from an old Nissan Leaf for their electrical system, without bothering to properly waterproof the stuff (water + Leaf batteries == FIRE).

      The yacht was also, because of all their changes, top heavy and overweight. Most likely cause of their boat sinking seems to be taking on a lot of water, causing a battery fire.

  2. Based on the story it looks like they were experienced sailors with a lot of miles on their boat. The boat was registered in BC so I can only assume they had already done both coasts and transited the Canal. The northern route across the Atlantic is much shorter but that area can whip up some pretty nasty storms even at this time of year. The story says they were eco-freaks determined to show they could be fossil fuel free. (ignoring the fact that their boat, sails, and solar panels were made using the stuff ). They had removed their diesel engine possibly upsetting the balance of the boat unless they filled the area with Batteries for solar power storage. Don’t know how much solar they could generate, probably mostly from that big Bimini top. You still need the Sun to generate power so your Navigation gear and Weather reporting works. The sun isn’t always very available at those latitudes, The cloud cover can be constant.

    In any case, a 42 foot boat is really too small for a North Atlantic crossing. I wouldn’t attempt it in anything less than 70 feet with a crew of at least 4 people. A crossing needs someone on watch at all times. …. oh and the life raft they were found in was also made from fossil fuels. Thier mistake was not spending the extra money on the more expensive Winslow raft with the included Emergency Locator Beacon.

    1. …… and if you think being on a bigger boat will isolate you from storms at sea just watch this video. Now granted this is in the southern ocean but pretty much the same latitude, just the other hemisphere.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1A4SM_AZY8

      Now remember that they were in a similar storm in a 42 foot boat.

  3. “[…]a shitty James Cameron movie (is there another kind?)”

    Uh…The Terminator, Terminator 2, and Aliens. But other than them, yeah, I agree with you.

  5. No AIS so it could be tracked. If it was a collision, AIS should have prevented it from both vessels. Once they were in trouble they should have triggered an EPIRB on the boat and another on the raft, so they would have been rescued in hours. Crossing oceans can be done safely in small 38ft boats safely, but you must be prepared for every failure modem, use AIS, and have all the safety equipment in good working order. They failed to do so. If you cant afford an EPIB, you have no business going to sea.

    1. They probably blew all their money on gutting the diesel and installing econazi feelgood gear.
      Good life saving rafts, electronics, and other safety equipment are spendy and the electronics need, steady, clean power, and if their solar panels or wind generation device(s) were stilled by overcast or doldrums, they wouldn’t have had the power to run the AIS or EPIRB even if they had them.
      I’m sure they thought such stuff wasn’t necessary, because they had the chirpy optimism that their virtue signaling would see them through, like the bison petters who say to themselves “It knows I mean it no harm” right before the animal gores their guts out on a Yellowstone road.
      Reality is a bitch, and more shoulda woulda coulda dogooders need a taste of it, good and hard.

  6. It doesn’t matter how well prepared you are – one big (100 foot) wave and you’re toast. The sea takes no prisoners.

    Yes, I toured a RNLI museum yesterday.

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