Why is this power cord wearing a Scrunchie?
Well, it does dress up an otherwise unadorned area aboard the boat, but the real utility comes when we are in lightning country.
When faced with storing the boat in a lightning-prone area, or if aboard during a lightning storm, some cruisers put electronic items that would be damaged or destroyed by a lightning strike, or the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) of a nearby strike, in the oven or microwave. (An oven or microwave acts as a faraday cage and protects the electronics from the effects of a strike).
The problem with this approach is that you might forget (or not know) the items are in the oven and turn it on to preheat it, thus cooking your Iridium Go, handheld VHF or chart plotter (or all three).
That’s where the scrunchie on the power cord comes in. When you put an item in the oven or microwave, take the scrunchie (or pompom, or any brightly coloured obvious thing) and put it around or hang it from the control knob for the oven, or tuck it in the door of the microwave to serve as a reminder that the space is occupied by items that won’t benefit from pre-heating.
When the sensitive items are redeployed to their operating position, the marker can be stored safely out of the way on the power cord again.

Left: Scrunchie tucked in microwave door; Right: Scrunchie on oven control knob
Similar markers/strategies could be used with other critical systems that would be saved by timely reminders, such as an engine raw-water through-hull (e.g. attach the reminder to the start switch, or hang the engine key on the closed through-hull handle).
The materials for this are readily available at most dollar stores (Avant’s fave chandler) worldwide, usually in the hair-care aisle.

Dollar store purchases: scrunchies and hair elastics
I can’t really claim credit for this idea, as I read of how Lin and Larry Pardey used a similar concept aboard Taliesin to warn them of open portholes.
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