Well, I finally got back to the boat about 10 days ago. Left Reno in a blizzard, it took the plane two tries to deice and we ended up being about an hour late getting off the ground. No problem as I had a 4 hour layover in LA. We were only about 15 minutes late leaving LA for Mazatlan. The flight to Mazatlan was, for the most part, uneventful. Although we did hit a bit of clear air turbulence about a third of the way down the Sea of Cortez that bounced us around for a few minutes. Wouldn't you know it was right after the drink service so a few people wore their drinks. Anyway after doing the immigration and customs shuffle, Vic from Charisma met me and gave me a ride to the marina. While everyone was complaining about how cool and windy it was for me it was great, no need for a coat and no snow anywhere in sight. For the next couple of day I just sat around in the warm and visited with friends that had been here all season. After that things went down hill. I started on the first boat project, replacing the Henderson pump for the lavic head, a small project that I projected would take 2 or 3 hours at most. Particularly after I made it easier by breaking the sink drain and having to remove the sink, this opened up the area around the pump and all its hoses so it was very easy to reach standing up and not by squeezing my 6'3" 260 lbs body into a 3 foot square space under the sink. But as we all know, nothing on a boat goes according to plan. The 2 or 3 hour project turned into a 4 day project, the simple pump replacement turned into a pump replacement and a decalcification/acid cleaning of all the hoses, valves and ElectroSan unit. For those who are not familiar with saltwater and onboard sanitation systems, when saltwater and urine come in contact a chemical reaction takes place that precipitates the calcium out of the urine and coats the hoses. The result is like someone pouring wet cement into the system hoses and letting it dry. How do you clean them? You should run an acid solution through them every so often, vinegar will work if there it not to much build up and you use enough. If it has gotten pretty clogged than it works best to use a muriatic acid solution. NOTE: Don't do this if you do not use protective clothing and eye protection and don't know what you are doing. The other way to clean the hoses is to remove them from the boat and beat then against the end of the dock, this breaks up the calcium deposits and they are flung from the end of the hose coming to rest on everything and everybody around you. This method, besides adding a distinctive whap, whap, whap rhythm to life in the marina, may insure that you are not invited to many dock parties. In addition to this fun project I seemed to have picked up a bug that just drained all may energy for about a week. The good news is that I am well, at least physically, the head project is done and everything seems to work great and I'm ready for the next project. This one is a short 2 or 3 hour project to replace one of the foot pumps under the galley sink and will be a can of corn.... He says as he is trying to stuff his less the svelte body under the galley sink and we fade to black.