Tropicbird Case

[Amityville Rock]

Tom Olchefske is a 60 year old (he looks like he's 50!) retired Navy Captain. He is 5 '10" with blue eyes and brown hair. In excellent shape and health, he weighs about 175 or so. He and his female companion of 10 years, Betsy Crozer, left on Tropicbird from Annapolis in the spring of 1999. They spent the majority of their time on Trinidad/Tobago and environs, flying home only occasionally. His e-mails to family were full of his love of being there. He loved everything about that lifestyle, and enjoyed snorkeling and scuba diving.

It seemed he was always fixing on his generator! He was headed to Annapolis because Betsy needed surgery on a torn rotator cuff and they would be able to live on Tropicbird during her recovery. They were planning to go back down after the hurricane season this fall. Tom left Trini ALONE on June 7. Tropicbird was found by a salvage tug on June 20, 13 days after he set out, washed up on a reef near Antigua.His last journal entry was June 8 stating he was 400 miles out, everything is fine, making good time. He has not been seen since. Tom wears contact lenses, and has probably lost them by now. If he's on a small island, he may have trouble seeing a boat pass by. The Antigua Coast Guard and their law enforcement are conducting an investigation and are being very tight-lipped with information. So we have learned nothing about the boat except that it is in good shape. The US Coast Guard on June 23 closed their investigation and is no longer conducting active searches for Tom. Please spread the word. Our only hope now is for someone to spot him on an island."

Check out this link for more information and pics:

www.action-tobago.com/Ideas/News/test%20search.htm

[Amityville Rock]

Farewell, Betsy Crozer: Two Sailors' Sad Saga

When Betsy Crozer was diagnosed with cancer last year, she never imagined she would outlive her longtime companion, Tom Olchefske.

"After that we were inseparable," Crozer told Bay Weekly in July.

Olchefske and Crozer began living a life of adventure together in 1998, aboard the 39-foot sloop Tropicbird. They spent that summer sailing south to Bermuda, and the next three years sailing the Caribbean out of Trinidad and the Windward Islands.

But Crozer fell ill in 2001 and returned to Annapolis for surgery. Olchefske planned to sail Tropicbird home to the Chesapeake, alone.

He left on June 7, 2001, after arranging to make regular radio calls to friends back in Trinidad. When he failed to make a single call, Olchefske's friends notified the United States Coast Guard. Tropicbird was found June 20, but Olchefske's body was never recovered.

Crozer scheduled a memorial service for her lost love at the Naval Academy on October 29, 2001 -- her birthday.

"I chose it so I wouldn't have to be alone," she said.

She wasn't. Ninety-seven people turned out for the service. Nor was Crozer alone when, a year after Olchefske's disappearance, she added the Singles On Sailboats flag from Tropicbird to the dozens that decorate the Boatyard Bar and Grill in Eastport. Her fellow Singles packed the place, and helped her say goodbye.

Betsy Crozer died a month later, on August 10, in Annapolis.

"She apparently knew this was going to happen when we had the ceremony at the Boatyard," Ron Pence wrote the Singles. "After that night, she e-mailed me that she finally felt some closure on her loss of Tom, so I'm hoping she departed this earth with some peace of mind."

An expert ornithologist, Crozer was consulted about wildlife rehabilitation after the Exxon-Valdez disaster in Alaska. She once owned a marina in New Jersey, and she traced her roots back to colonial Delaware. She is survived by two brothers and many friends.

-- Brent Seabrook

Source:

www.bayweekly.com/year02/issueX40/dockX40.html