We left Honningsvag on Saturday, heading for Longyearbyen on the island of Svalbard. It is the most northerly town in the world at 78N latitude. With a day at sea spending time in the spa made sense. After the heat of the sauna, I sat in the relaxation room, with a view from the stern of the ship.
I was up early Sunday morning to sketch our arrival. Like most of the weather and landscape here, it was shades of gray.
A fellow traveler asked if he could take of photo of me sketching, he sent the photos with his permission to use them.
We went on a bus tour of the area around the city. We learned a lot about he history of Longyearbyen, which is mostly about the coal mines there. Only one remains active and it is scheduled to close in a couple of years. Then everything changed. That night I got sick, which lasted through the next day at sea, the following day at sea, and our first stop in Iceland. No sketching at all, I rarely left the cabin. Tricia gets some kind of award for her kindness and caring.
I always carry a pocket size sketchbook, so thought I would show you a few from it. The first is one I did with my Confucius Fude pen in brown ink while we were at the Troll Museum in Tromso. This is the Troll King from Peer Gynt, the play by Henrick Ibsen.
Here is one I did while we were listening to music in the Gatsby Lounge on the ship, and one I did this morning as we were coming into Isafjordur, Iceland. Feeling a bit better, thankfully.
Travel and sketching are often full of surprises, Bob Ross called them happy accidents. So whatever surprises come your way this week, I hope you can turn them into something OK.
theTravelsketcher 
Great sketches, as always—and special that someone took photos of you doing just that on the ship. Even grand adventures have some misadventures, and it sounds like that’s what you experienced the last few days. SO glad you had nurse Tricia and you’re feeling better. Probably something odd you ate (and we know you can be an adventurous eater!) Once on a cruise in Greece I drank a glass of warm ‘fresh’ orange juice from a street vendor…and was sick in the cabin for 24 hours. Ah, Memories…
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I think I had a bug of some kind, even had a fever to go with it all. But am on the mend now.
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Love the first one. Thanks for sharing. Reminds me of my Coast Guard days in the North Atlantic.
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What part of the Arctic were you in?
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I sat in the Radio Room and never got information about Lat & Long as we cruised. But two of the US-manned stations were Alpha (62 degrees Latitude) and Bravo (56 degrees 30 Lattitude). The Arctic Circle begins at 66 so I don’t think we quite made it into the Arctic. But the folks manning the bridge would have known.
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We made it to 78N, our entire cruise was above 66N
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That is pretty far north, that’s for sure. Of course, doing it in the summer is a better time for that. Have you hit any heavy seas yet? On our South Pacific trip one day we had 30 foot seas and 70K winds. But with a ship as big as ours it really wasn’t too bad. Still, a lot of people got sick as they are not accustomed to that.
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Those silvery overcast days are very familiar to me. Too bad that you became ill; definitely no fun at any time but while on holiday it’s particularly nasty. I hope you’re feeling better now. Nice to have pictures of yourself sketching.
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I bet those days are familiar, they did match how I felt though. Feeling better now though.
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So sorry you got sick. Glad your feeling better to enjoy Iceland. (Away from the gray bleakness of Svalbard. That said, very, very, very few people can say they have been to the most northern town on earth. Kudos to you!)
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That is true, few have. I think I was quite surprised that the north of Norway was so gray, none of that green I painted for your mom.
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Me, too.
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In sickness and in health…
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I like the photos where you sketch – that’s special. And glad to hear you’re feeling better (drink a few glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice – my grandma’s advice for everything 😉).
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As long as it’s not wa m like my friend Shirley’s was 😉
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