I have been riding my bike along the bike path on the west side highway for over two years. I belong to a rowing group Floating The Apple, that meets on wednesday nights through october over at pier 40. While exploring the pier last year, I discovered this beautiful old lady and from that day on, I was smitten! Anyways, this summer I decided to try and find out about this boat. I spoke with some of my rowing buddies, and one of them told me it was the Tamaroa. well, i had read The Perfect Storm, so the name was not unfamiliar. However, I could not believe she was JUST SITTING THERE!!! So, every few days I stopped by to say hello, hoping someone would be there and I could talk with them---all i really wanted to do was to scrape the rust off her decks!! Nothing. I called the Coast Guard down at Battery Park, and they didnt even know who i was talking about. Sigh. They referred me and referred me, and finally I was told that the Coast Guard no longer owned the vessel. I asked who did, and they were not too forthcoming. They suggested I go and hang out up there and perhaps i would find someone working on her. Fat chance. I had already gone that route. Well, I went back up there and sat with her, finally coming up with the idea that a message in a bottle might do the trick. I went home, took an old plastic juice bottle, decorated it real purty, tied a ribbon around it, and wrote a message explaining that I just wanted to help fix this lady up in any way i could! I went down there and tossed this Piece of Art on board---not REALLY expecting a reply--but what the hell, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Some weeks later I came home to a message on my machine: "Uh, yes, this is a message for anne polster? this is Laurie calling regarding the Tamaroa. please give me a call at......" I was ecstatic!! I immediately called her, and when I introduced myself, she said, "I think i know you---did you work for NYC Parks ten years ago?" I replied that I had, and she told me she thought that it was me because of the decorations on the bottle!! (I had gone into the rubber stamp business after leaving parks, and the bottle was heavily rubber stamped!). Anyway, she was coming in to the mounted unit as i was leaving mounted, and i vaguely remembered her! It turns out that the parks dept was doing a routine inspection of the Tam, and she was the officer that found the bottle!! (she is now in the marine patrol unit of parks). We talked for a long time, and she was instrumental in getting my colleague and I on the Tam some weeks later----but thats another story!! So there you have it---another serendipitous encounter for the logbooks.