In the past few months there has been a number of sailing fatalities caused by possible human error and or severe climatic conditions.
The sea can be both magical and daunting mother nature can catch out the unweary sailors. I want to look at the first incident of a couple sailing from Novia Scotia to the Azores. It’s sad story of couple who recently met and fell in love. Brett Clibbery and Sarah Packwood.
Brett Clibbery a retired Canadian locomotive engineer, was visiting the UK from Canada in May 2015, he asked one of the waiting passengers, at a bus stop by Trafalgar Square in London, why people waving Union Jack flags. Sarah the other waiting passenger told him they were celebrating the birth of Princess Charlotte. Brett’s and his question struck up a conversation and the pair sat down next to each other on the bus ride towards Battersea. They had a shared passion for travel. Brett told Sarah why he was in London. “I was donating a kidney to my sister Glory, who lived in the UK.
Brett had told Sarah about his sail boat, Theros, and his passion for sailing. She said, It was always something I wanted to do. In 2016 Brett invited Sarah to visit him in Salt Springs near Vancouver where Theros was moored.
Their first big sailing adventure was from Vancouver down the west coast of America through the Panama canal, sailing up the east coast to Novia Scotia. Their sailing boat was GIbsea 42 called Theros. They had converted into electric drive propulsion installing a Nissan Leaf battery pack and electric drive system with six solar panels over the cockpit. Brett had installed 6 large solar panels over the cockpit of Theros which acted like Bimini sun shade. They called their sailing trip the Green Odyssey. The boat was fitted with AIS : The automatic identification system, or AIS, transmits a ship’s position so that other ships are aware of its position. The International Maritime Organization and other management bodies require large ships, including many commercial fishing vessels, to broadcast their position with AIS in order to avoid collisions.
They left Dartmouth yacht club in Halifax harbour Nova Scotia on June 11 2024 on route to the Azores. The AIS signal was last received on 12 June, according to marine traffic? Brett Clibbery’s son, James reported the couple missing on 18 June.Halifax coastguard coordinated a search for Theros, with all ships as distress priority. Aircraft was dispatched on 2 July to conduct visual and sensor search. All ocean sailing vessels should have Electronic beacons on board which give out a regular signal to search and rescue if in distress. Theros was probably only doing 5 knots per hour, so evert 10 days the boat would have travelled 1000 nautical miles. The Azores is about 3 week sail from Nova Scotia, or 1500 nautical miles to the Azores. Days later Theros life raft was washed up on the long spit of land called Sable island. Both Brett and Sarah were found dead of dehydration.
What happened to Theros she was never found. Last AIS message was on the 12 June, had there been a collision with a vessel? I thought about this for a while? AIS signals are from one vessel to another. This was still quite early in the season and icebergs are known to drift down from Greenland by the Labrador current even into June off Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. What if they had collided with an iceberg at night and the collision badly damage the hull. Theros was taking on water quickly and they had enough time to launch the life raft. However they didn’t grab their EPIRB beacon, and they didn’t have enough water to survive the time spent drifting in the sea towards Sable island.
Let’s look at Theros technical data for ocean sailing:
| S.A. / Displ.: | 21.13 |
| Bal. / Displ.: | 38.00 |
| Disp: / Len: | 215.42 |
| Comfort Ratio: | 24.96 |
| Capsize Screening Formula: | 1.99 |
| Hull Speed: | 7.64 kn |
| Pounds/Inch Immersion: | 1,465.77 pounds/inch |
This is GIbsea 403 similar size Glass Fibre construction below 2 on capsize ration and reasonable comfort ration, but you want it to be in higher ratio for comfort. My Vancouver 32 has comfort ratio of 32.4 capsize ratio 1.76. But this isn’t exactly the Gibsea 42.
Lets’s look at the Iceberg risk in Nova Scotia early June: Icebergs are best viewed in late May and early June along the coast of Newfoundland, and between March and July along the coast of Labrador. Bergs are actually most plentiful in April and May but are often trapped in sea ice that prevents tour boats from operating.
There’s a definite risk of collision with an iceberg especially at night. Remember Titantic was holed by an iceberg and sank.
Okay let us consider a scenario: with two crew onboard I’m sure they would have ran a watch system between themselves. Say there wasn’t much wind and one on watch had spotted an iceberg, Due to the cold temperatures the electric motor or batteries couldn’t power up the propulsion to drive the propellor to move them out of the way of the iceberg. It slowly drifted upon them caused damage to the hull. The other scenario is they were sailing and didn’t see the iceberg because it was dark night with no moon. Theros collided with an iceberg accidentally she took on water and sank. But the couple had enough time to get into the life raft without setting off their EPRIB. Evidently they might not have had one onboard the boat. Didn’t have enough water onboard the life raft and died of lack fresh water intake.
How could this tragic accident have been avoided culminating in their deaths. When I had my fun boat Beneteau 30 JK I looked into electrical drive system to be fair the exorbitant cost put me off. My Beneteau 30 JK wasn’t an ocean going sailing boat. I bought her for the Mediterranean Sea only. She had a bolt on keel which I don’t like for ocean sailing, in case the bolts were to shear off and you then capsize. I didn’t like the array of solar panels over the cockpit. They could easily be swept away in storm conditions. What happens then? You have no power for your navigational lights and GPS.
Diesel engines I appreciate aren’t green, however the modern marine Diesel engines, such as Yammar 30 Hp 3 cylinder, are so reliable. Diesel engines can get you out of many tricky situations, such as being swept onto a lee shore. Or in emergency dodging a vessel or an iceberg.
This is why a grab bag is so important coupled with a functioning EPIRB electronic distress beacon.
One small piece of kit could have saved their lives. A Katadyn survivor 6 hand operated osmosis seawater to fresh water pump. It would have given them enough water to survive their month adrift in their life raft.
Wednesday, August 14, the sea around Formentera showed its most terrifying side, with waves driving about forty boats against the rocks near Illetes and Cala Saona, causing significant damage and injuries to several people.
However, the storm’s chaos wasn’t limited to the large vessels on the western side of Formentera; it also affected the Migjorn area, where a true miracle occurred: the safe return of Xicu Torres Costa, known on the island as Xicu des Moliner.
Xicu set out to fish on his llaüt, named Cristina, to retrieve the nets he had out at sea. But the sudden fury of the storm caught him off guard. The fierce winds and enormous waves capsized his boat and eventually sank it. For seven hours, he clung to a piece of wood from his own boat, battling the sea and fighting for his life until he was rescued. When they found him, exhausted and showing signs of hypothermia, it was as if he had been reborn.
In Greece with high ambient air temperatures Athens in Greece experienced wild fires because of tinder dry vegetation.
Whats causing these high temperatures in the Mediterranean sea area. It’s quite simple its the heating up of the climate. Most of the excess heat is absorbed by the oceans and seas such as the Mediterranean sea. As water temperature increase and air temperature nature has one option is to reduce it through evaporation. That creates clouds, electric storms and intense rain and winds. In the extreme case down burst and water spouts and tornadoes.
I don’t think there was any loss of life, but it caused lots of damage and destruction of boat anchored on a lee shore. The boats couldn’t get out of the anchorage and the boats dragged their anchors and end up on the rocks. Intense storms like this are natures heat exchanger. Scary position to be in at anchor in high winds rough seas on lee shore. Its virtually impossible to raise your anchor if you did you’d be instantly swept onto the beach or the rocks! The worst place a sailor could be located!
Finally the sad loss of life on the super yacht Bayesian with her being capsized and sinking with loss of 7 peoples lives.I know there’s big blame game going on presently against the captain and some crew members. this happened close to Palermo coast line. Again boat at anchor high water temperature and sea temperature. Evidently warning had been given ref electric storms intense rain and winds. However water spout mini tornado and cloud down burst were a possibility. Baysian must of taken a direct hit. 56 metre vessel with tallest sloop sailing mast in the world.
They had a retractable keel, sleeping passengers had complained about the noise it made fully extended. So it wasnt fully down, that would make it easier to capsize. The sailing vessel was more a hybrid motor vessel. With big powerful twin engines requiring large cooling vents. The turning or capsize momement was only about 80 to 90% greater than that the vessel would turn turtle meaning roll fully over. The passengers would of been completely disorientated in the dark with no lights. The vessel took on water quickly. It was anchored in 50 metres of water. Thats why it was challenging dive for the divers. Short bottom time diving on air. Who’s to blame I believe in roundabout way all of us! Because we are burning fossil fuels like there’s no tomorrow. Carbon Dioxide, water vapour and Methane is being pumped into the atmosphere in gigatons each and everyday. This is the real problem and its causing planet heating and in turn freak intense weather events. Bayesian unfortunately was in the wrong place at the wrong time with a sad loss of 7 peoples lives.