Journal

Chart coverage in eastern Indonesia is uneven and reef is often better seen than charted. How to combine charts, satellite imagery, radar and eyeball navigation in Raja Ampat.

The northwest islands around Wayag and Kawe are Raja Ampat's signature landscape and its most remote leg. Range, timing, anchoring and self-sufficiency requirements.

The southern run to Misool is Raja Ampat's most rewarding and least supported leg. How to plan range, fuel reserve, weather windows and a genuine turn-back point.

Equatorial squalls arrive at night from any direction. How to choose a Raja Ampat anchorage that stays safe through a wind shift, and what to have ready before dark.

How to find and use a sand patch when anchoring in Raja Ampat — light, lookout position, approach speed, setting the anchor and verifying the swing over reef.

Tidal stream in the Dampier Strait governs mooring approaches, swinging circles and tender work. How to read it before committing a yacht to a buoy.

How visiting yachts should share Raja Ampat's mooring buoys and dive sites with the liveaboard fleet — timing, rafting, dive-site priority and the relationships that follow.

The geographic, economic and conservation reasons Raja Ampat has no superyacht marina, and the distributed system of moorings, anchorages and Sorong logistics that works instead.

Taking a line ashore in Raja Ampat's steep-to karst bays — when it is the right seamanship, when it is prohibited or damaging, and how to rig it without harming the shoreline.

A practical inspection routine for Raja Ampat conservation moorings: what to look at on the riser, the fixing and the surface tackle before committing a hull for the night.