Holiday Boat Parade Takes to the Hillsborough River

Friends of the River chairman Phil Compton knows all about the holiday boat parades that happen along the beach communities, and their abundance of big yachts. His event is an alternative. "We're calling this the boat parade for the 99 percent," he said, "because canoes, kayaks, johns, skiffs, and yes, the yachts are welcome too."

So you can consider the Friends of the River's the come-as-you-are parade. Leaving the boat ramp at Lowry Park on the Hillsborough River at 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 18, the procession will head up stream and stop at Sulphur Springs Park at approximately 7 p.m.

There the Sulphur Springs Action League, the neighborhood's civic association, will host festivities including a contest for best decorated powerboat and best decorated canoe/kayak, and a performance by the children's choir. Free hot chocolate and popcorn will be provided.

Compton said past parades have averaged two to three dozen vessels, with lighting schemes running the gamut from modest to eleborate. "With boat decorating,” he said, "LED technology has come along great. You have kayakers with one 10-light string of lights that run on two AA batteries stuffed in shirt pocket. And then you have power boats that have the room and ambition to run a battery with an inverter, and they can put on anything they want.”

The Hillsborough River makes for considerably more cozy confines than the Intracoastal Waterway, where most other holiday boat parades are held in the region. So this event was scheduled to coincide with a high tide. "Otherwise it would be hard for large boats," Compton said.

Friends of the River is a citizen support group concerned with promoting health and environmental policies that affect the quantity and quality of water in the lower Hillsborough River and Tampa Bay.

If you take photos of this year's Holiday Boat Parade, upload them to this story!