The flood waters slowly subside and the fountains of the deep reclaim their water. Noah abides in the ark until God lets him out. Noah initiates altar sacrifice and God promises to never flood the world again, not that He does not promise to not destroy the world.
I take from this chapter that God can change His mind, especially if we implore Him. He wanted to destroy all men at first, yet He reneged. Though the future is transparent to Him, it is not cast in stone and we can have a say in it if we but prevail on His goodness and mercy.
And Noah left the ark and sacrificed. How many times have I received answers to my prayers – and then promptly forgotten who answered them.
It is interesting that Josephus and other ancient writers mention that parts of the ark were still present in their time.
It seems a telling witness to the actuality of the flood is that there are petrified closed clam-shells found on the highest mountain in the world. Of course skeptics have their theories to explain the unlikely occurrence just as they have theories to explain the unlikely fact that our universe is finely tuned to support life.
Even though Noah's ark or the Ark of the Covenant were to be found and authenticated even to a skeptic's satisfaction, they still would not accept the inspiration of the Bible.
