Great Ocean Escapes

Pull anchor and sail for Indonesia’s remote islands and marine life rich waters on one of the archipelago’s most luxurious phinisis.

- Lauren Hill

With well over 17,000 islands spread across three time zones, Indonesia is one of the world’s largest archipelagos. It’s also one of the most biodiverse, both on land and in the depths of the cerulean sea.

The Coral Triangle spanning the waters of Indonesia, Philippines and Solomon Islands is particularly bountiful with hundreds of types of coral, six of the world’s seven turtle species and more than 2,000 species of colourful reef fish. These facts alone are enough to bring people here and with such scope for exploration of uninhabited islands, it’s the sailing yachts known as phinisis that are the favoured way to get around.

Charters designed with the luxury traveller in mind sail through these vast regions according to the time of year, passing from Raja Ampat to the Komodo Islands and exploring the Spice Islands in-between.

A voyage through Raja Ampat is among the most extraordinary journeys you can take by sea. Just off the tip of Bird’s Head Peninsula in West Papua, over 1,500 wild forested islands and cays sit amid cerulean waters home to a kaleidoscope of coral reefs so rich in marine life, they’re thought to have the highest recorded marine diversity on Earth.

I begin my journey here on the new phinisi, Prana by Atzaro, in Sorong, leaving the busy port for the open sea and clusters of sparsely populated islands. Our first port of call is Mioskon, a bat inhabited heart-shaped island with waters known for excellent diving. It’s close to here in the village of Saporkrem that I set out on an early hike to see the bird of paradise at first light and visit huts lining a jetty jutting out to sea.