eventfarm

If you like quick reads:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_of_Pi

He's at sea for most of the book...

Also:

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Poe

He originally marketed this as a travelogue... Again, occurs mostly at sea.

You probably don't want to know about the waste: (taken from oceana.org)

Sewage

The average cruise ship with 3,000 passengers and crew generates about 30,000 gallons of human waste and 255,000 gallons of non-sewage gray water every day. Cruise ships are allowed to release treated sewage almost anywhere they sail. They are also permitted to release untreated

gray water—non-sewage wastewater from galleys, dishwashers, baths, sinks, showers, and laundries—anywhere they sail, except Alaska. Cruise ships can also lawfully release untreated sewage, or black water, anywhere beyond three miles from the shore (except in certain areas of Alaska). Cruise ships are required to have onboard waste treatment systems, known as

marine sanitation devices (MSDs), the industry is required to keep logbooks of their discharges, but are not required to monitor the quality of the waters into which they routinely dump their waste.

Solid Waste

The average cruise ship produces seven tons of garbage and solid waste every day.

Under Annex V of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, or MARPOL 73/78, (implemented by the federal Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act and

their regulations), cruise ships are barred from dumping plastics anywhere

at sea and floatable garbage within 25 miles of shore. They are permitted, however, to dump garbage that has been ground into pieces smaller than one inch when they are three miles from shore, and unground garbage when they are at least 12 miles from shore.

Toxics

The average cruise ship with 3,000 passengers and crew generates 15 gallons of toxic chemicals every day.

Toxic chemicals generated by cruise ships are generally waste products from photo developing, dry cleaning, painting and other activities. Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, ships are required to store these wastes onboard while under way, and then, once in port, to transfer them to

certified chemical treatment and disposal facilities. Since this information is not made available to the public there’s no way to ensure that each ship is complying with this requirement.