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July 2003 –
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Encounter with Chessie
by digiload
In September of 1985, a friend and I decided to go fishing in the Chesapeake Bay for flounder. Our plan was to take his boat, a 15-ft. runabout with a 35 hp motor, and motor out to an area near the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. On the day we went on our trip, it was sunny, upper 70s and clear. A great day for fishing. Because it was a weekday, there were few boats in the area. My friend and I were both police officers with different jurisdictions in the area. This trip was the result of a chance meeting as we hadn't seen each other much in recent years. We both went to high school at Bayside High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia and lived across the street from each other for many years. We immediately started catching a number of nice flounder, drifting with the gentle easterly current, and positioning our boat near the south side of the channel near Fort Wool (a manmade fort). This island was adjacent to the south island of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel.
As we fished, one of us looked back toward the island, toward an eddy where the current was swirling near the rocks and some trash was gathered on the surface. Suddenly, something rose and broke the surface, rolling over. It appeared to be large with no dorsal fins; only a large curved back was visible. Puzzled, we didn't know what it was. A short time later, we observed a long neck protruding from the water of the stern of our boat, toward the northwest, with a short, horse-like head, looking away from us at an angle. The time was about 1:00 p.m. The creature was about 75 yards away from us. I looked at my friend and asked what it was. He said that maybe it was a turtle. I said I had never seen a turtle with an 8-ft. neck!
The creature submerged when I wasn't looking. About 15 to 20 minutes later, while I was putting bait on my hook, my friend shouted that he had something big on his line. I looked over and his rod was bent over double, his line moving in the water from our right to our left, steady, as though something big was on. Suddenly, a head, long neck, and large body erupted from the water behind us. I could see a greenish yellow-colored body, rounded back with a number of barnacles on it, and large diamond-shaped fins on the front, stroking frantically. My friend's fishing line, which was draped over the chest of the animal, snapped. The animal took several frantic thrusts in the water and dove down. A large wash of several waves rose our boat up and slammed us down. It was only 15 feet behind us and a shocking site. Traffic on the Bridge Tunnel could clearly be seen behind the animal, about a 1/4 mile away. Stunned, we frantically got the motor started and motored to the nearby beach off Norfolk. After we stopped, our hearts were still racing. My friend said, "Maybe we should report this." I said, "No way. We would be discredited whenever we gave court testimony in our jobs as police." We did not report anything. I only reported this incident to the Smithsonian Institute several years later (with drawings). It still sends goose bumps down my back when I think of it. There were several of those large helicopters nearby, pulling antisubmarine sleds under them on the water surface. The area is not far from the Norfolk Naval Air Base at Willoughby.
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