If It Floats Your Boat

Rascal is the best place in which to disappear for a few days, to commune with nature, to speak to people only as you please, and to be reminded that in the close confines of a boat theres no such thing as a small talk

- Marc Almagro

Large parties are intimate, and small ones don’t offer much privacy. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s character obviously didn’t form that observation while sailing on a luxury yacht - I decided after spending three nights on Rascal, a modern phinisi built for leisure travelers, adventure divers and, with the owner-operator’s newly formed partnership with Conservation International, marine scientists.

There were six of us guests on board, and ten crew members to see to our needs, a ratio that promised great comfort if nothing else. We made up a diverse group, brought together by a need to get away for a while, hopefully someplace exotic, luxurious, and out of roaming-call range.

Someone in our party, we learned soon enough, was eager to explore the seabed, another to work on her tan, and yet another to catch up on her reading, but somehow always retreated to her cabin for a nap. A blogger and her photographer-partner wanted to do a number of things. Meanwhile, I was prepared to get out of everyone’s hair, sit in a corner, and read.

Our flights converged at Bandar Udara Komodo, a ‘work-in-progress’ in Labuan Bajo – a small farming village on its way to becoming a busy port town where expeditions to the nearby islands of Rinca, and Komodo, and the islets around Flores were launched. We got off the plane, walked across the tarmac and waited with the rest of the crowd in the air-conditioned arrival hall until our luggage appeared one by one on the temperamental conveyor belt.

Cold towels appeared as we waited for the transfer to Rascal, which was docked at the Labuan Bajo Port, a random collection of sheds and covered paths at the bottom of what will likely become the main tourist drag. Give it time. There was grime and confusion and heat, and it was a great relief to see all of us finally collected on a speedboat and on our way to the phinisi.

LUXURY ON THE WATER