We created another medley of three jigs we call the Lynnhaven Bay Set, and it opens with another of Bob's compositions entitled, "Captain Nathaniel Colley." Nathaniel Colley was the captain of the Clermont, the ship that brought Thomas Jefferson home to Virginia from Europe after five years as Minister to France. Dumas Malone, the distinguished Jefferson scholar, in his book, Jefferson and the Rights of Man, identified Nathaniel Colley as a Norfolk native, and Jefferson called Colley a "bold" sailor. The second tune is "Water Under the Keel" and is the third movement of Shaun Davey's large scale work The Brendan Voyage. It was originally written for uilleann pipes and orchestra and performed by Liam O'Flynn. Our fiddler, Paul, had learned the tune from O'Flynn's playing and composed "Lynnhaven Bay" to follow it. We thought the tunes flowed nicely from one to the next, but we found yet another connection that tied them together. Upon arriving within sight of Virginia, the Clermont ran into fog and was forced to drop anchor in Lynnhaven Bay, just west of Cape Henry at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The Clermont docked in Norfolk around midday on November 23, 1789 where Jefferson was greeted as the very first Secretary of State under President George Washington.

There is another interesting twist to this story found between pages 233 and 237 in the Norfolk Borough Register, 1783 - 1790, said book being on file in the Clerk's Office of the Circuit Court of the City of Norfolk, Virginia. After docking, Jefferson and his party, which included his two daughters, Patsy and Polly, and two family slaves, brother and sister James and Sally Heming, took their first steps on American soil on the Norfolk waterfront after several years in Europe. After checking into Lindsay's Hotel, Jefferson discovered that the Clermont caught fire at the dock side shortly after their departure. The fire destroyed a good portion of the Jefferson cabin, but the crew members were able to retrieve his belongings, including state papers and files, and haul them to safety. The next day, November 24, 1789, those crew members, Nathaniel Colley (Master), Robert Baggess (Mate), Joseph Johnson (Boatswain) and David Jackson (Carpenter) appeared before Robert Taylor, Mayor of the Borough of Norfolk, to give their official account of the fire on board the Clermont. According to their testimony, they discovered fire in the cabin and store room that raged so violently as to prevent them from getting too close. They had to knock away the bulkhead and scuttle the quarter deck in several locations and, with the assistance of nearby citizens, they were able to control and extinguish the fire. The result was extensive damage to the cabin and store room, along with its contents, and the quarter deck. The captain and crew also requested an appraisal of the damages in order to get the ship repaired. The mayor sent Hillary Butt, Henry Braithewait and George Whytock to assess the damage and their report stated: "In Obedience of the above Order, We the Subscribers did repair on board the Brig Clermont Captain Nathaniel Colley and took a Survey of the Damages which said Brig has sustained by fire and we are of Opinion that it will Cost One hundred and Thirty Five pounds to put her in the same situation that she was in when she arrived in this harbor…"