When Luksa Ivancic was a little boy growing up on the coast of Croatia, he would admire the sea captains and think about what it would be like to sail the world on some grand ship. How he would love to follow in their footsteps.

“They wore uniforms with those hats and long twirling mustaches and smoked pipes,” he said. “Other little boys might want to be a doctor or a lawyer but I wanted to be a ship captain.”

His parents probably figured Luksa would outgrow that childhood notion. But his ambition became even more firm. As he grew older, his parents asked him about his future plans.

“When I told them that I wanted to be a ship captain, my father began to cry,” Luksa said. “He said I would never have a family, that I would always be gone.”

His mother, however, encouraged Luksa to follow his dream. “She said if it didn’t work out, I could always come back home.”

It did work out, however. Today, Luksa is the captain of the M/V Athena for Grand Circle Cruise Line. Although our cruise has just begun, it seems as though Luksa is everywhere – welcoming passengers, chatting with crew, munching on snacks while he listens to the evening port talks, strolling ashore and, of course, guiding our ship from the pilot house.

“This is what I always wanted to do. I’m happy doing this,” the 55-year-old said.

After his initial training, Luksa worked on a big cruise ship and traveled the world. “When I was 18, I saw New York for the first time. I saw the Statue of Liberty through this small round window and fell in love. Being a ship captain is all I ever wanted to do. I’ve been around the world several times and right now we are visiting a very interesting part of the world.”

When the Croatian War began in the 1990s, Luksa left the big cruise ships to be closer to his family in Croatia. “I had a wife and two daughters at home. I took a job with a ferry so I could be home with them.”

When the war ended, Luksa worked on mega yachts for five years. But one day, he was walking along the port in his Croatian hometown of Split when he encountered an old shipmate. “He was a colleague from 20 years ago and now he was working with Grand Circle Cruise Line.”

The two began talking and Luksa realized that being a ship captain for Grand Circle would be an ideal job. “My friend said they would be needing a new captain in November and I told him I would like to do that.”

When Luksa told his wife, she said the idea sounded too good to be true. “But they called me in August and I have been with Grand Circle now for six years,” he said. “The Athena has two sister ships and there are six captains.”

When he is home, Luksa said he likes to go fishing on his small boat and grow olive trees to make olive oil for his family. In fact, Luksa has four small olive trees on the ship’s sun deck right now for delivery to his home where they will join his orchard.

“The olive tree is a holy tree for us,” he said. “We use a lot of olive oil … My father every morning would drink one spoon of olive oil before anything. It is a natural medicine for the heart and kidneys. My father was 78 when he died and he was not sick before that. My mother was 82.”

What he likes most about being captain of the M/V Athena, Luksa said, is the compact size of the ship, the Grand Circle company, the crew he works with and the travelers he gets to meet. “It’s a small capacity ship – 50 passengers, 21 crew members – so it is like a family.”

As for his family at home, Luksa said he is already planning a special celebration for his wedding anniversary next year. What do he and his wife want to do? “We’d like to take a cruise with our family to Scandinavia.”

Seems like that love of the sea and the ships that cruise is shared by all of Luksa’s family.

Story and photo by Jackie Sheckler Finch