The name of the van

A log recording the adventures of RV Shearwater.

“Captain’s Log” were the first words spoken in the first Star Trek episode The Man Trap. Interestingly it made its broadcast debut on 1966.09.06 on CTV in Canada, two days before it premiered on NBC in the USA. James Tiberius Kirk (born: Riverside, Iowa, Earth, 2233), the captain of the USS Starship Enterprise continued: “Stardate 1531.1. Our position, orbiting Planet M-113. On board the Enterprise, Spock temporarily in command. On the planet the ruins of an ancient and long-dead civilization.”

Stardates and Earthdates

In time, Star Trek (in 1987) changed Stardates from four to five digits and usually (but not always) one decimal place, vectoring its viewers somewhere into a science fictional future. The practice, however was established long ago by ship captains to record and inform about their location, sea conditions and other valuable data about their voyages. Although, like many recordings they have become largely digital, many ship and boat captains continue the traditional way of recording their adventures in hand-written journals. Thus was conceived the log of the adventures of Recreational Vehicle (RV) Shearwater, on Earthdate 2023.01.13.

Shearwater

Our Mercedes Sprinter van is named after the Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus, a seabird that spends its winters in the south, off the coast of Argentina and Brazil. In spring, the species travels north for 10,000 km, often for stopovers to refuel on fish. Individuals can survive for over fifty years, travelling a cumulative million kilometers in their lifetime, just on migration. Fishing trips, which tend to be very extensive, are extra. They make their summer homes on mountainsides and clifftops in the British Isles, Ireland, the Faroes, and Iceland.

Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus. © Matt Witt (Creative Commons)

Three quarters of the British and Irish population breed on just three islands, including the Isle of Rùm in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. It’s a place of deep personal meaning to me as I made many trips there leading field courses and conducting research for my PhD on native woodlands and environmental change.

On one visit I embarked on a midnight hike to the saddle between the summits of Askival (812m) and Hallival (722m), the prominent twin peaks of Rùm, seen below. There, I experienced at close hand thousands of these small black-and-white birds flying in from their fishing missions to feed their chicks waiting in burrows scraped out of the soft volcanic mountain soils.

Born in Germany, raised in Canada

Shearwater was built by Mercedes-Benz in Düsseldorf, Germany, in March 2023 then shipped to Canada and obtained from Mercedes-Benz Country Hills. She was transformed for adventures by the excellent team at Yama Vans based in the Foothills of the Canadian Rockies and embarked on her first voyage of discovery to Kananaskis Lakes, Alberta on 2023.09.29.

The voyages of RV Shearwater

More from the Captain’s Log and adventures of Shearwater coming soon!