LASHA in Raja Ampat: 2027 Season Calendar & Routes

Our first Komodo season has not even begun — the maiden sailing leaves Labuan Bajo on 17 August 2026 — and the questions about the season after it are already arriving at the charter desk. Fair enough. Raja Ampat is the reason many groups charter a phinisi in the first place, and the eastern calendar rewards anyone who plans a year out. So here is the working 2027 calendar for LASHA in Raja Ampat, the Banda Sea and Wakatobi: where the ship will be month by month, how we shape ex-Sorong routes from 8 days to 12, and when each window actually needs to be booked.

THE EASTERN CALENDAR

Why Raja Ampat Runs on the Opposite Calendar to Komodo

The monsoon decides this, not us. From roughly April to October the southeast trades keep Komodo dry and calm while the far east gets the weather; from November to April the pattern flips, Komodo turns wet, and Raja Ampat sits in sheltered water behind its karst walls. Every serious liveaboard in the fleet moves with that cycle, and LASHA was built to: 52.5 metres and 466 gross tons of ulin and teak, with 12,000 litres of fuel and 22,000 litres of fresh water aboard — enough autonomy to treat a remote archipelago as home for a fortnight. The full eastern program, rates and fit-out live on our Raja Ampat expeditions page.

For 2027 the sequence is fixed by that logic. We finish the maiden Komodo season through late 2026, reposition east in the October–November 2026 window, and open the new year already in Raja Ampat, sailing from Sorong. The archipelago holds more than 1,500 islands and cays; the charters below are how we make sense of them in a week or so.

The 2027 Season, Month by Month

Work backwards from the weather and the year reads like this:

Two honest caveats. First, positioning dates firm up with the season and are confirmed on your written quote — the table is the monsoon logic, not a timetable. Second, we run far fewer eastern charters than Komodo ones: a 5-night minimum on a repositioned ship simply produces fewer slots per season, which is why the booking advice below leans early.

Ex-Sorong: How We Shape 8D7N to 12D11N Routes

Eastern charters board in Sorong, the gateway port on New Guinea’s western tip, served by Domine Eduard Osok Airport with connections through Jakarta and Makassar. Your group steps off the flight, onto the tender, and the first anchorage is usually the same afternoon. From there, three route shapes cover most requests:

The 8D7N week concentrates on the Dampier Strait, where survey dives at Cape Kri have logged 374 fish species on a single tank — the density that made Raja Ampat’s name — with Manta Sandy’s cleaning stations and the stilt village of Arborek an easy tender ride apart, and Piaynemo’s viewpoint as the mid-week climb. Nine nights add Wayag, a half-day’s sail north into the karst maze most day operators never reach. Eleven nights bring in Misool’s south: lagoon channels, ridge dives and rock art, inside one of Indonesia’s strictest marine reserves. All three shapes flex around your group — every eastern departure is a private whole-boat charter, so the route brief is written with you, not for you.

The Banda Sea and Wakatobi Crossings — Charter-Only in 2027

Twice a year the ship has to move between Komodo and Raja Ampat anyway, and the inter-monsoon shoulders — late March–April and late September–November — are the weather windows for it. Those crossings are expeditions in their own right: the Banda Islands with Fort Belgica and the nutmeg groves that once made them the most contested islands on earth, hammerhead schools off Banda in the September–November window, and the atoll walls of Wakatobi — Wangi-Wangi, Kaledupa, Tomia, Binongko — for a ship carrying her own dive deck. Maratua can be written into the same eastern program.

For 2027, both Banda Sea–Raja Ampat crossings are sold as private charters only. There are no shared or per-cabin departures: one group takes the whole ship, one way, and sets the pace. That makes each crossing a single slot per direction — genuinely scarce — but it also carries a quiet advantage: boarding along a scheduled positioning leg is how the relocation fee falls away. If a one-way route interests your group, tell the desk before you fix flights.

What a 2027 Eastern Charter Costs

We publish the eastern band in full. Raja Ampat, Banda Sea and Wakatobi charters carry a 5-night minimum, whole-boat from $11,600 per night for up to 14 guests on the leisure program, or from $12,400 per night with the dive program — $825 and $880 per guest per night respectively. From guest 15, each additional guest adds $825 (leisure) or $880 (dive) per night up to 22 paying guests, and the free-of-charge scale runs alongside: one FOC place at 15 paying guests, rising to four at 21–22. Ten ensuite cabins take up to 26 guests, and marine-park entrance fees of US$25–35 per guest per night, depending on route, are billed separately.

Against the Komodo band — from $9,800 per night with a 2-night minimum — the eastern premium buys the repositioned ship, the longer distances and the remoter permits. Most groups find the per-guest arithmetic sits well under resort-and-flights alternatives for the same coastline, and there is no on-request pricing: the quote you receive matches the published tables.

When to Book the 2027 Season

As of this writing — late July 2026, three weeks before our first sailing — the 2027 eastern calendar is open. Across the Raja Ampat fleet, New Year and February fortnights are typically committed 9–12 months ahead, which puts the sensible decision window for January–March 2027 between now and October 2026. This is also our first eastern season, so first-committed groups get first choice of dates and route shape; the two 2027 crossings, at one charter each, will go to whoever asks earliest. Flexible-date groups get the honest version of the advice: tell us the month you could sail, and we will tell you which fortnight the sea favours.

Bookings for LASHA Phinisi Cruise are handled end-to-end by Komodo Luxury, the vessel’s official marketing partner. Seasonal windows above follow the fleet-wide monsoon pattern; exact positioning dates are confirmed with your written quote.

Plan the Eastern Season