August 4th - Symphony Splash (#55)

Monica and I went down to the Inner Harbour to watch the Symphony Splash. I joined, Tom, Willow and Ailsa (a student of mine from 1987!) as kayak donations volunteers, soliciting donations and "selling" glow sticks and such. Just as I remembered from two years ago, this was a great event. The music was magnificent, and the ambience was spectacular. It was neat to see another past student Adam Sawatski emceeing the event. The view of the event from a kayak is spectacular - probably the best seats in the house! I saw several other SISKA members (Joanna, Jeff), CBSA members (Bob) as well as colleagues (Rea, Whitney) and past students (Andrea, Ann). We launched at the James Bay Anglers ($5 launch fee or $25 annual membership) and paddled our way around to the Splash area. I did a lot of paddling back and forth talking to people and asking for donations and probably collected over $200. It was also really neat to see the son of good friends of ours, Eric Manning, perform a piano solo and their other son Philip playing for the orchestra. In addition,Bill was on the stage at the finale piping with the Canadian Scottish.The 1812 overture finale was truly spectacular and powerful with the pipers, cannons and fireworks. A wonderful evening. My GPS batteries were low, so I did not get a track...I estimated 6 km, as that is what I did last time This is a link to the track image from 2011. Once again the Kayalu kayalite deck lights worked very well ( I got mine from Joe O a few years back, and he still stocks them..

This year's estimated track -click to enlarge

5 km, YTD 699 km

 The Kayalite deck light

The actuial track plot from the time the GPS was on... The battery quit at around 7.

click to enlarge