Over the weekend, a Polish yacht that left Iceland for Aberdeen, Scotland, got lost on the way. The missing vessel, which was carrying seven crew members at the time, was recently located off the coast of the Orkney Islands, after a search was initiated to locate the yacht. Everyone on board was safe.
A search began when the 14 metre-long Syrenka did not arrive in Aberdeen, as scheduled on Saturday. When the ship was located, it was found to be suffering from engine problems which had also resulted in a lack of communications.
By midnight on Saturday, communication with the vessel had been restored and a lifeboat from Stromness, Orkney was sent out to begin tugging the yacht into harbour.
The yacht left Keflavik last Sunday and made contact from a point just south of Iceland on Monday. When the Syrenka did not arrive in port as scheduled, a family member of one of the crew raised the alarm.
A spokesman from the Aberdeen Coastguard said that their office attempted to alert all harbours and shipping areas in the region to keep an eye out for the missing yacht. Offshore oil sites were also notified. Coastguards in the Faroes, Iceland, Shetland and Stornoway also joined the search, trying to contact the missing yacht by radio.
One member of the relief crew had “grave concerns” about the Syrenka’s lack of radio contact. Without establishing contact, the search could have been forced to cover 200,000 square miles of sea.
I’ve just come back from the Icelandic coast,wow,what a place absolutely stunning scenary.Anyway I was googling iceland and this page came up.Glad they found that boat ok.I stay in Aberdeen just down the coast from Orkney and sadly some fishing vessels have gone to sea never to return,nice to see a happy ending.