Dutch sailor missing on North Atlantic for weeks

A Dutch sailor has been missing on the North Atlantic between Iceland and Greenland for weeks. 63-year-old Eugene Eggermont was supposed to check in with his family around August 22, but they never heard from him, NOS reports.

The Haarlem man regularly took his wooden sailboat, the Laurel, on long sailing trips across the Norwegian Sea between the Shetland Islands, Norway, the Faroe Islands and Iceland. He was on one such trip last month. On August 8 he departed from the Westman Islands on the southwest coast of Iceland and told his family he was going to cross to Greenland, hundreds of nautical miles to the west.

Eggermont said he'd make contact with his family again in Greenland around the 22nd of August. When his family still hadn't heard from him a week later, they contacted the Dutch coastguard, who in turn notified their Icelandic colleagues.

The Icelandic Coast Guard and the Danish army searched for the Laurel with ships, planes and helicopters. They also asked seafarers to keep an eye out. But to no avail. The active search for the missing Dutch man was halted on September 11.