I first caught sight of the Plancius, my home for a week, in Longyearbyen Harbor.

So I sketched it.

I was aware of a man with a camera milling about. After my sketch he told me he took my picture while I was sketching. He told me that he was part of an expedition to the North Pole. Svalbard is certainly the starting point of Polar adventures.

The m/v Plancius was built in 1976 as a research vessel for the Royal Dutch Navy and was christened “Hr. Ms. Tydeman”. She was purchased by Oceanwide Expeditions in 2004 and rebuilt as a passenger vessel. She was renamed Plancius after the Dutch astronomer and cartographer.

I had plenty of other opportunities to sketch the Plancius from shore. My favorite Plancius sketch was on a hike at Bamsebu. We headed up the slope with amazing views of the fjord with Plancius anchored in the middle.

It was here that our guide had a challenge: sit for five minutes quietly and take in the sights and sounds of the Arctic. This is called a silent sit but I did a silent sketch instead (featuring sketch). This was an easy challenge for me but about three minutes in I heard the tell-tale sounds of cameras.

When we made Zodiac landfall we had to always remember that we were in the land of the world’s largest carnivore, the polar bear.

Before any passengers made a landing, the landing site was surveyed both from the bridge and by Zodiac to make sure there were no recent signs of polar bear activity.

Once we landed, all guides were armed with a flare gun and a high caliber rifle. Keeping passengers safe was important but no guide wants to kill a bear. The first option if a bear was heading towards a group, was to use a flair gun in an attempt to scare the bear away. The rifle was the very last resort and none of our guides had ever had to use one in the field.

I’m not sure how reassuring this was, I hoped they were good shots but our lead guide assured me they regularly practice.

Luckily, no rifles were fired on our week-long adventure. But unluckily, spoiler alert, we saw no polar bears.