Boating the Ohio River

The Ohio River makes a hair-pin turn at Evansville Indiana, on its course from Pittsburgh to Cairo Illinois. It's called Horse Shoe Bend, and it's a bane to barge traffic being pushed by powerful tow boats. That's especially true after a winter of high water through the Ohio River Valley, when the current, plus centrifugal force, carries the river bottom from the middle to the outside of the turn, clogging the ship channel.

Enter the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who have to move that sand and silt out of the channel - guaranteeing those tow boats at least nine feet under the keel as they put the rudders hard over to make the turn.

All that sand and silt has to go somewhere.

So the dredgers dump it into the center of the river, off Evansville's downtown, outside the red buoys that mark the channel. And there's more than enough to create a small sand island in the center of the river, one that will remain intact for many months before the current carries most of it away - back into the turn.

Boaters from Evansville's Inland Marina - most of whom are members of Inland Yacht Club - refer to that sand island as The Pump-Out. And in an Evansville summer, that is the place to be.

There's really no problem getting there. Just turn your boat when you see the island and put on a bit of speed. Let your bow slide right onto the sand - there's enough deep water for your out-drive to stay lowered into the water. Once you climb off your bow and set your anchor in the sand, you'll meet others of your ilk. They're playing horse shoes, cooking on grills, building a bonfire for the night, or just sitting and enjoying good conversation, liberally laced with beer, making new friends and celebrating old ones.

Not a few of those boaters spend the night aboard, still beached on the tiny island that used to be the bottom of the ship channel - and some Club die-hards will even spend some winter nights there with generators and cabin heaters.

Is there a better place to enjoy boating? Probably. But no one on the pump-out would admit it.