Captain's Log
I am a fan of Star Trek. The first episode of the original series, began with Captain Kirk saying these words:
Captain’s log, star date 1513.1, our position: orbiting plant M113; onboard the Enterprise, Mr. Spock temporarily in command. On the planet: ruins of a long-dead civilization.
When the creator of Star Trek, Gene Rodenberry, wrote that first captain’s log, he probably had no idea of the size and scope of the sci-fi universe that was about to be unfurled in front of him. But, that is how it is with captain’s logs – you never know how helpful they will be in the future.
The National Archives of the U.K. has ship’s logs from over the centuries. The most popular collection dates between 1757 through 1861. The entries include famous seafarers such as James Cook, William Bligh, and Matthew Flinders who circumnavigated Australia. When then-captain Bligh set sail on the Bounty in 1789, he probably did not think that his logs would become an important part of naval antiquity.
My dad kept a captain’s log on our sailboat, Patience. They were not nearly as exciting as science fiction; we never did explore the ruins of a long-dead civilization in a place where no one has gone before; but, they were important. Occasionally, when we were out on a long, over-night sail, I’d read through some of dad’s entries. I found that most outings were normal course, others were exciting – like when we broke the mast.
Last month, I shared a story about running out of fuel on our boat on Labor Day – we were stranded and relied on the help of two jet skis to get us to the boat launch. What I didn’t share was that later that day, I put 45.2 gallons of fuel into our 45-gallon fuel tank. I believe that is called bone dry. Although boat fuel is something James Cook never had to worry about, his logs show he had plenty of other concerns.
The captain I bought our boat from told me that the gas gauge has never worked and besides, he’s had Yamaha’s before and “You can’t trust the gauge anyway.” I asked how he knows how much fuel is onboard. He got a crooked smile, patted the steering wheel, and said, “Oh, she’ll ya’ know; y’all just need to pay attention.” He then glanced at me and said, “But maybe you should fuel up every time you launch her.” Using his first piece of advice, yes, the boat did tell me. She was running very light about fifteen minutes before she ran out of fuel. Incidentally, 45 gallons of fuel is 283 lbs. so no wonder she was running so light. And, for the record, I was trying to use up the old fuel; I just didn’t want to use up all of it!
Christi came up with the idea that I write a captain’s log. I have now started to write down each time the boat goes out, where we went, and also to record any service I have done to the craft.
I wonder if King David, the author of many of the psalms, is surprised they are being said or sung each week. In some ways, David was logging where he saw God that week, or, sometimes, when he wondered where the heck God has gone to. We are reading through the Letter to the Hebrews this month on Sunday. Written in the 1st century by an unknown author to a Hebrew (most likely Jewish) audience, the letter chronicles how the author saw Jesus fitting into the Hebrew Scriptures. Theologians are delighted by this letter because we get a glimpse into what Scriptures were popular in the author’s community. In some ways Hebrews is a ship’s log of how the Early Church read Scriptures and how they saw Jesus.
If you have considered chronicling your life, I encourage you to do so. I would love to read even just a page of what my father’s great-grandfather had to say. In some ways, the weekly practice of writing a Reflection is a log of my life focusing on where I found, or didn’t find, God. With our boat’s log, I hope that after reviewing our trips, I can get a feel for when to fuel up. Or, I suppose, I could take the advice of the previous owner and just fuel her up each time she gets launched. But then, I wouldn’t need to make a log. And although the boat won’t be around for my great-great-grandchildren, maybe they’d like to read the log to know what I experienced.
-Fr. Dave