A Dutch sailor has been missing for weeks in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and Greenland. The Icelandic Coast Guard and the Danish army searched for his wooden sailboat with ships, planes and helicopters, but found nothing.
The search was made more difficult because the Dutchman does not have a GPS tracker with him. He would, however, be in possession of a so-called personal locator beacon, with which a distress signal can be sent. It is unknown why this device was not used.
The Icelandic Coast Guard released two weeks ago a call to seafarers on Facebook to look out for the boat, the Laurel. The Icelanders also distributed a search message via radio. There has been no active search for the Dutchman since Saturday 11 September.
Experienced sea sailor
The missing man is 63-year-old Eugène Eggermont from Haarlem. His family calls him an adventurer, who in recent years has sailed long distances across the Norwegian Sea between the Shetland Islands, Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland.
Eggermont departed from the Westman Islands on the southwest coast of Iceland on August 8. He told his family that he planned to make the crossing to Greenland, hundreds of nautical miles to the west. There he would make contact again around the 22nd.
When relatives had not heard from him a week later, they notified the Dutch coastguard. He contacted the Icelandic colleagues, after which the search was started.
The family acquiesces in the unknown fate of Eggermont. “We will most likely never find out what happened to Eugène.”
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