The Ohio River makes a hair-pin turn in Evansville Indiana, in its course from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois. It's called Horse Shoe Bend, and is a nightmare for boat traffic that is driven by powerful tugboats. That is especially true after a winter of high water across the Ohio River valley, where today plus centrifugal force, is the bottom of the river from downtown on the outside of the curve, obstruction of the navigation channel.

Enter the Corps of Engineers U.S. Army having to move the sand and silt from the canal – to ensure towing vessels for at least nine feet below the keel, and to put the rudder hard over to make the turn.

All that sand and silt has to go somewhere.

So dredgers dump it into the middle of the river, outside the center of Evansville, outside the red buoys that mark the channel. And there is more than enough to create a small sand island in the middle of the river, which remain intact for many months before the present has over far – again on the return.

Boaters Evansville Inland Marina – the most of whom are members of Interior Yacht Club – They refer to the island of sand as the pump outlet. And in a summer of Evansville, which is the place to be.

There's really no problem to get there. Just turn your boat when you see the island and got a bit of speed. Let your bow slides right into the sand – not enough deep water outside your unit to stay low in the water. Once you climb out of his bow and set your anchor in the sand, you will meet others of their ilk. They are playing horse shoes, cooking grills, build a campfire for the night or just sit and enjoy good conversation, plenty mixed with beer, make new friends and the celebration of the ancients.

Not a few of the sailors on board overnight, still stranded on the small island used to be the bottom of the navigation channel – And some die Club intransigent even spend a few nights of winter there with generators and cabin heaters.

Is there a better place to enjoy boating? Probably. But nobody in the efflux pump would admit it.

This article was written by Jim Truckey, owner of Good Tidings Nautical Gifts http://www.nautical-gifts.us

Boat Show 2007 at McCormick Place