Aside from all day pelagic cruises, the last time I was on a cruise of length, more than 24 hours, was when I was much younger (11 years old, according to my mom). This was a cruise (think: Love Boat) from Vancouver, Canada to Alaska.

It was my first experience with a floating city. This ship had every thing you needed and many things you didn’t.

Today the capacity of an average cruise ship is 3,000 passangers with a crew of about 1,000. The largest cruise ship in the world, Icon of the Seas, has a capacity of over 7,000 passengers with a crew of just over 2,000. This ship is 1,197 feet in length, that’s 315 feet longer than the Titanic.

I, on the other hand, would be on a summer cruise on a ship with a paltry capacity of 108 and a crew of 49! This ship was just under 300 feet, a mere 30% of the Titanic’s length.

I would not be in the sunny climes of the Bahamas (there’s no ivory gulls or polar bears in the Bahamas!) but cruising 80 degrees North, around the Norwegian island archipelago, Svalbard.

My cruise ship will be the m/v Plancius. (The m/v stands for merchant vessel.)

The Plancius was built in 1976 as a scientific research vessel for the Royal Dutch Navy. She was then named “Hr. Ms. Tydeman” and served the navy until June 2004.

She was purchased by Oceanwide Expeditions and rebuilt to carry passengers in 2009. Rechristened the Plancius in honor of the Dutch astronomy and cartographer she now cruises in the Arctic and Antarctic. In my featured sketch I sketched Plancius, cast as an Arctic explorer, which he wasn’t. Let me go look for my artistic license (I hope it’s not expired!).

I would be sharing my berth with a complete stranger. I knew that he must an adventurer, on a quest to see a melting world.

I look forward to my summer Arctic cruise and the many sketching opportunities in my near future!