Within days of resuming the sailing season, a family from metro Richmond got to see a Navy warship up close during Opening Week.
The USS Gonzales exited NWS Yorktown back to Norfolk, where presumably it will engage in the Iran war. We first heard the news when a radio operator alerted the public and later the Coleman Bridge by using marine radio.
I advised the Gonzales of our location near the Yorktown docks and our intention to stay on the south side of the York River, well leeway of passage.
10-year-old Hunter Lesch was gob-smacked to see a Navy ship coming right at us (seemingly). As the bridge opened and the ship passed, I observed that it was as close as one gets without getting shot at.
The USS Gonzales is an Arleigh Burke–class guided‑missile destroyer commissioned into the U.S. Navy in 1996. Named for Sergeant Alfredo “Freddy” Cantu Gonzales, a Marine who received the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism in Vietnam, the ship carries a legacy of grit and sacrifice. That heritage shows in her motto: “For Honor, For Country.”
Built around the Aegis Combat System, Gonzales is designed to fight in every domain—air, surface, subsurface, and electronic. Her vertical launch system can fire Standard Missiles, Tomahawks, and ASROC, giving her the reach to defend a carrier strike group or strike targets ashore. She also carries Harpoon missiles, torpedoes, a 5‑inch gun, Phalanx CIWS, and advanced radar and sonar suites. In short, she’s a Swiss Army knife with a steel hull.
Gonzales has seen real-world action. In 1999, she supported NATO operations during the Kosovo conflict. In 2006, she helped evacuate American citizens from Lebanon during the Israel–Hezbollah war. She has also been involved in multiple counter‑piracy operations off the Horn of Africa, including the 2009 rescue of the Maersk Alabama captain—an episode that became global news. Her crew’s professionalism in those tense hours reinforced the destroyer’s reputation for readiness and precision.
Like many Burke‑class ships, Gonzales has spent much of her career in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, operating with NATO partners, conducting freedom‑of‑navigation patrols, and providing ballistic‑missile defense. She remains a frontline combatant, continuously upgraded to keep pace with evolving threats.
Today, USS Gonzales stands as a testament to the durability of the Burke design and the spirit of the Marine whose name she bears. She’s not just a warship—she’s a moving memorial, a deterrent, and a workhorse of American sea power. — ChatGPT
Loons Sunning
Meanwhile, a flock of cormorant loons were oblivious to the action as they lined up on the edge of the Yorktown Riverwalk docks to catch the sun.
The next day, I attended the annual Charter Boat Conference at the Virginia Marine Institute at nearby Gloucester Point. At the end of the morning, two experienced captains told of their recent experiences They were asked their biggest challenges.
Charter Expenses
Capt. Stan Gold is retired USCG with 21 years running a fishing charter out of Virginia Beach. “My biggest problem is making revenue against higher expenses,” he said. “My 28-foot center console takes 160 gallons of gas to run offshore and back.” At $4 a gallon, that’s $640.
“My dry-storage lift used to cost $350 a month. Now it’s $850.” The audience of captains groaned that he just move. “Can’t move, because there’s no place else nearby. If we don’t pay $850, they’ll just tear the storage down to build condos on the water.”
He added that he used to make 25 to 35 charters every summer. “Last year I did three.”
That afternoon, I took out a couple from Knoxville who traveled to Williamsburg to take in history tours for America’s 250th this summer. I showed them paintings of the French and British warships, along with the older and smaller Kamal Nyckle tall ship of Delaware.
To give a sense of scale, I told them that my 32-foot sailboat has 1,000 feet of line to run the sails. I once asked the captain of the Kamal how much line she had, and she replied momentarily, “Eight miles.” By contrast, the man-o-war battleships of the 1781 battle had 20 miles each.
