I love this “boat show”. It ain’t really a boat show at all, of course. It’s really the Pacific Marine Expo, a trade show targeting professional mariners, including shippers; commercial fishermen; tugboat, crane, and dredge operators; and government and research organizations.

Amid the many amazing industrial products of dubious utility to recreational boaters, I spotted several items of potential interest to Navagear readers.

Among them, the McMurdo FastFind PLB (Personal Location Beacon). It’s basically a GPS connected to a radio, which you activate in an emergency. It broadcasts your location to a global network of satellites, and some sort of rescue response is launched.

This product isn’t news to regular readers of Navagear orPanbo, but what was news to me was seeing how tiny it really is! This is one compact little unit, and under $300. Any serious wilderness recreation enthusiast—skier, backpacker, hunter, kayaker, sailor, pilot—ought to consider it.

And the model boat crowd was out in force, as usual.

In fact, when I told my older daughter (age 10) that the Pacific Marine Expo was going on now, she immediately asked “When are we going?” She loves the swag, the candy, and the model boats. I’ll probably bring her along Saturday.