"Thistle, Thistle, this is PNY"

So I pick up the phone the other night and hear a male voice say, "Thistle". Hmmmmm what the heck? So I said, "Hello" and the voice replies, "Thistle". Uh? So I said, "Well we used to own a boat named "Thistle" and then I heard, "PNY". Boaters and cruisers will understand this one. That is how you call another boat on VHF radio - you say the other boat's name a couple of times, than your own boat's name such as "Thistle, Thistle, this is PNY". This meant we were being called by "PNY" or "Princess New York"! Wonderful cruising friends from our first and second year in Mexico.

What a great surprise!!!

We had done a camping road trip with them outside of Puerto Vallarta, raced with them, had many dinners with them and had 100's of good times!

They were in Pismo Beach in their RV on their way back to Palm Springs. We had a great visit with them for an evening on our boat. They have been married 47 years! Of course, they got married when they were 10...

Carl (Curly as all the cruisers know him as), Carol, Jim & Heather Curly had broken a bone in his hand and had to have surgery a few weeks ago.





They brought this wine - not sure if they were making fun of themselves or us (or both!)...









Carol called "Alana Marie" on the phone - Ian (Rocket) and Anne (Alana, Amoeba) so we could all talk to each other. None of us own the same boats as we did, but we will always be the "Thistles" to them. "PNY" will always be "PNY" to us and "Alana Marie" will always be the "Alana Maries"...

We had a GREAT visit! It was like no time had passed. They had to look at my stick figure book - my log & journal from our travels on "Thistle". Carol was the one that named it my "Stick Figure Book".
This is for you Carol:
Just looking at their faces and hearing their voices made me happy and took me back to our cruising days. Thanks for coming to visit! And thanks to "Steppin Out" and "Capricorn Cat" who helped them hunt us down!