For any of you who have read my novel, Within the Depths, you know about my harrowing experience of surviving my sinking boat and swimming to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel one late, stormy night.

The book is based on the true account of my experience that night but, in the book, I mention that I returned to Norfolk a fee years after the accident. In truth, I’ve never been back until today, 27 years later. It is something I’ve wanted to do for so long, revisiting the place where my life was miraculously spared and, though so much has changed, it was important to me to get as close as I could to either the spot where the boat sank or the one that we swam to. Since construction prevented a visit to the bridge-tunnel, my husband and I drove out to Ocean View Park, where the once popular Greenies once stood. My heart raced as I walked over to where we had departed, just minutes before that fateful storm hit. The most surreal feeling overcame me while I stared out into the tranquil and expansive Chesapeake Bay, remembering all of it. I couldn’t help wondering how many other vessels had been swallowed up on her power. Looking back now, it is hard to believe that it even happened, let alone that I actually survived it. When I look out over such a span of deep water, I wonder how it was that I swam for those two and a half hours on that monstrous storm that night in 1995. What an intense feeling it was to return so many years later. Many of the surroundings are different, but the feeling is the same, the one I had back then about Norfolk. It is a special place to me that I will always hold dear to my heart. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to come back here and relive such an important part of my life, the day that I fought and survived when all odds were against me. I return with a healthy fear, respect and unwavering love for the great Chesapeake Bay.