Uses for an Old Toothbrush

Old Toothbrushes - Like Old Musicians

They never die....they just de-compose!

Really??  ....yes really I can hear you saying it.  What the heck is this doing on a Sailing/travel Blog??.....well read on.  I will keep it brief and hope that you will chuckle along with us in the spirit this post is intended.

Well - we found that the strainer on our water cooled air conditioning units tend to foul up at an exponentially quicker rate now water water temperatures in the Gulf are increasing.  To compound that, we are presently moored in the Anclote River which is very silty........well that's a polite way of describing it.  Water quality does not seem "pristine".  So the old tooth brush has been used several times for cleaning out the strainer......in fact last time, I had to use a screwdriver to break up encrusted barnacles that had actually found their way into the strainer basket.  And that's not to mention the black "silt"/gue that had clogged the stainless strainer.  The tooth brush worked great.

The engine intake and generator also have strainers.....so given the success of my cleaning,
I also tackled those....all with the old toothbrush.  I didn't give it a thought, when finished other than to rinse it and put it on the Nav station for the next time it was needed....the old toothbrush still had some life left in it.

I didn't give it another thought........never even wondered where it was.......that was until out son Austin (recently joining us after a trip to China) asked if we had a new toothbrush he could use.  Obvious question....."why, is your old one needing replacement?".........Answer..."well, I think I left it in China, so I've been using the one I found on the Nav station for the last few days......"........"Really....the one on the Nav station....the grey/blue one?.......are you sure its that one?"......"yes..why?"

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww................but we laughed our socks off at his expense!!