Open water on the eastern crossing between Komodo and Raja Ampat

Expedition · The Crossing

Komodo to Raja Ampat Crossing: Route, Days and Price

Eight hundred to a thousand nautical miles from Labuan Bajo to Sorong, through Flores, Alor, the Banda Sea and Misool. Ten to fourteen days, twice a year.

800–1,000 NM
Labuan Bajo to Sorong: 10–14 days
Guest itinerary: from $11,600
Per night, whole boat: 2 windows
Per year

Repositioning

The Voyage Between Two Seasons

Map of the sea route from Labuan Bajo east to Sorong — There is no single charted corridor. The number moves with weather and with which islands the itinerary stops at.

Sailing from Komodo to Raja Ampat covers roughly 800–1,000 nautical miles through Flores, Alor, the Banda Sea and the Seram Sea. Guest itineraries run 10–14 days; a bare delivery transit takes about five to seven at 8–10 knots. On LASHA the voyage prices inside the long-range band, from USD 11,600 per night for the whole boat with a five-night minimum.

This is the itinerary almost nobody publishes properly. Fly-in Raja Ampat trips and week-long Komodo charters are described in detail everywhere; the passage that joins them — the one that puts a ship in the Banda Sea in the only two months of the year it makes sense — is usually reduced to a single line in a season calendar. Below is the leg-by-leg shape of it, the honest count of sea days, and the price.

Leg by Leg

What Does the Route Look Like, Leg by Leg?

Route map from Labuan Bajo through Alor and the Banda Sea to Raja Ampat — Labuan Bajo · North Flores · Alor · Wetar · Banda · Manuk · Misool · Sorong. Eight legs, of which two or three are genuine open water.

Distances below are planning estimates at typical liveaboard speeds of 8–10 knots, not charted rhumb lines; a captain adjusts them for wind, current and the anchorages a given group wants. What does not change is the order of the water.

Komodo to Raja Ampat — eastbound legs, planning estimates
Leg	Approx. distance	Approx. sea time	What happens
Labuan Bajo → north Flores coast	60–90 NM	7–10 h	Departure clearance, first night at a Flores anchorage; the ship settles into sea routine
North Flores → Alor / Pantar	150–190 NM	16–22 h	Overnight passage; Alor's straits and villages are the last easy shelter before open water
Alor → Wetar / Romang	90–130 NM	10–14 h	The step off the Nusa Tenggara chain into the Banda Sea proper
Wetar / Romang → Banda Islands	170–220 NM	18–24 h	The long open leg; Gunung Api and Banda Neira at the end of it
Banda Islands → Manuk / Koon	110–160 NM	12–18 h	The remote volcanic seamounts — hammerhead and sea-snake water
Koon → Misool (southern Raja Ampat)	140–190 NM	15–21 h	Crossing the Seram Sea into the Raja Ampat archipelago
Misool → Sorong or Waisai	100–120 NM	10–14 h	Final leg to disembarkation and flights out

Total order of magnitude: 800–1,000 NM. Route shape matters more than straight-line distance — captains adjust for weather, current and permit zones.

Read as a whole, the crossing has three characters. The first third is coastal Indonesia with islands always in sight. The middle third is genuine open ocean, where the ship's 12,000 litres of fuel and 22,000 litres of fresh water stop being specifications and start being the reason the plan works. The last third is the Raja Ampat archipelago arriving in pieces — Misool's karst first, then the Dampier Strait.

Diving the cold upwellings off Alor — Alor is the first real rung east — and the last sheltered water before the Banda Sea.

The Calendar

When Can the Crossing Actually Be Sailed?

The Banda Sea is open ocean with two monsoons across it, so the crossing is not a year-round product and any operator who says otherwise is selling weather they cannot control.

Crossing windows by season
Period	Conditions	Crossing viability	Notes
December – February	Northwest monsoon, wet and exposed	Generally not run	Fleet is already in Raja Ampat; Komodo is in its wet season
March – April (into May)	Inter-monsoon calm	Prime westbound window	Return crossing; secondary hammerhead window
May – August	Southeast monsoon, windy open water	Generally not run	Komodo season is at its peak instead
September – November	Inter-monsoon calm	Prime eastbound window	Peak hammerhead season in the Banda Sea; October often the sweet spot

Pattern consistent across operators working the Banda Sea. Individual departures still move with the forecast.

The Numbers

What Does It Cost on LASHA?

Deck plans of LASHA across her four decks — Ten ensuite cabins across four decks. On a fortnight at sea the cabin count matters more than it does on a weekend.

The crossing prices on the long-range band, which is the same band as Raja Ampat, Wakatobi and Maratua. A whole-boat night, not a per-person seat.

Crossing price — published 2026–2027 long-range band
Paying guests	Leisure per night	Diving per night	Free-of-charge places
1–14 pax	$11,600	$12,400	+0
15 pax	$11,250	$12,000	+1
16 pax	$12,000	$12,800	+1
17 pax	$12,750	$13,600	+2
18 pax	$13,500	$14,400	+2
…up to 22 pax	$18,200	$17,600	+4

Minimum 5 nights; a realistic crossing is 10–14. Marine park and regency fees are billed separately at USD 25 per guest per night. Full ladder on the rates page.

Two figures are easy to miss. First, the free-of-charge ladder: from 15 paying guests one place travels free, rising to four free places at 21–22 — on a twelve-night crossing that is real money. Second, the relocation fee. LASHA's home port is Labuan Bajo, so boarding in Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa or Alor outside a scheduled positioning window costs extra because the ship has to sail empty to reach you. Boarding along a scheduled repositioning leg is exactly how that fee disappears — and repositioning legs are when crossings exist at all.

Groups comparing this against a shorter fly-in programme can see the alternatives side by side in the long-range Raja Ampat cruise programmes the charter desk runs, then match the month to the window in the table above.

Padar Island in Komodo National Park at dawn — The crossing starts in Komodo. One flight in, one flight out, two weeks of water in between.

Who Sails

Who Is a Crossing Best For?

Best for travellers with 12–16 days. Anything shorter turns the voyage into an airport transfer with a boat attached.
Best for divers who have already done Komodo. The Banda Sea seamounts are a different category of diving: deeper, bluer, current-driven, advanced.
Best for private groups of 15–22. The FOC ladder and the single-hull logistics work hardest at that size.
Not for anyone prone to seasickness who cannot accept two or three genuine open-ocean nights. That is the honest limit of this itinerary.

Next: the Banda Sea section in detail, the practical Sorong arrival and pickup, and the expedition FAQ hub.

Eight Legs

What the Crossing Passes Through

A delivery transit covers this water in five to seven days. Nobody sells that as a holiday — these are the stops that make it one.

**Komodo**Padar, Pink Beach and the dragons before the ship turns east. The last of the familiar water.

**Alor & Pantar**Volcanic islands, cold upwellings and villages that see a fraction of the traffic Flores does.

**Banda Islands**The old spice port under Gunung Api — forts, nutmeg groves and the reef that regrew over the 1988 lava.

**Manuk & Koon**Sea-snake island and one of the fishiest reefs in eastern Indonesia, both far from any harbour.

**Misool**The southern gate into Raja Ampat — soft coral, karst lagoons and the first flat water in days.

**Sorong**The eastern end: an airport, harbour clearance and the start of the Raja Ampat season.

Read the list backwards for the westbound voyage. LASHA repositions east around October–November and returns in the March–April shoulder.

Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

How far is it from Komodo to Raja Ampat by sea?

Roughly 800–1,000 nautical miles depending on the waypoints a captain chooses through Flores, Alor, the Banda Sea and the Seram Sea. There is no single charted corridor; the number moves with weather and with which islands the itinerary stops at.

How many days does the Komodo to Raja Ampat crossing take?

A guest itinerary with diving and island stops normally runs 10 to 14 days. A delivery transit with minimal stops can cover the same water in about five to seven days at typical liveaboard speeds of 8–10 knots, but almost nobody sells that as a holiday.

What does the crossing cost on LASHA?

The crossing sits inside the long-range band: from USD 11,600 per night whole boat on a leisure programme and USD 12,400 with diving, minimum five nights. A twelve-night crossing at 1–14 guests therefore starts around USD 139,200 before separately billed park and regency fees.

Which months are safe for the crossing?

The inter-monsoon windows. Operators across the region run Banda Sea crossings in roughly March–April/May and September–November, when the northwest and southeast monsoons have both eased. December–February and June–August are generally avoided for open-ocean legs.

Can the crossing be run in reverse, Raja Ampat to Komodo?

Yes, and it is the same voyage read backwards. LASHA repositions east around October–November and returns west in the March–April shoulder, so both directions exist in a normal season.

How many full days at sea are there with no land stop?

On a well-planned eastbound itinerary usually two to three. The Banda Sea legs between the Alor group, the Banda Islands and the Seram Sea are the longest open-water runs; everything else can be broken by an anchorage.

Do we need to be divers to join a crossing?

No. The leisure rate exists precisely for that. Snorkelling, island walks, the Banda Neira spice-town visit and the sun deck fill the same days. Diving adds USD 55 per guest per night when you want it.

Where does the crossing start and finish?

Westbound and eastbound itineraries normally use Labuan Bajo at the Komodo end and Sorong or Waisai at the Raja Ampat end, because those are the two ends with airports and harbour clearance.

What paperwork or fees apply along the way?

Komodo National Park charges its own entrance fee under PP 36/2024 — IDR 250,000 per foreign visitor per visit — and Raja Ampat charges a conservation card plus a regency levy totalling IDR 1,700,000 for foreign visitors. Both are billed separately from the charter.

Is a crossing better value than two separate trips?

For a group with two weeks, usually yes: one flight in, one flight out, no repositioning of your own luggage, and water that no fly-in itinerary reaches. For a group with one week it is not a real option — the five-night minimum plus travel days does not leave enough voyage.

Where These Numbers Come From

Vessel dimensions, tank capacities, safety inventory and cabin numbers are taken from LASHA's own published specification sheet on the yacht page. Charter figures are the published 2026–2027 rate band on the rates page — the same file the Komodo Luxury charter desk quotes from. Government fees are cited to their source in the text. Where a figure is an operational estimate rather than a published number, it is labelled as such on this page. LASHA begins her maiden public season on 17 August 2026, so there are no guest reviews to quote yet and none are invented here.

Plan the crossing

Crossings exist only in two windows a year, so dates fix early. Every LASHA Phinisi Cruise reservation is handled end-to-end by Komodo Luxury, the vessel's official marketing and booking partner — an operator working Indonesian waters since 2015 and part of Juara Holding Group. Send your month, guest count and how many of them dive, and the charter desk returns a written quotation with the rate band, the free-of-charge ladder and every separately billed fee itemised before any money moves.

WhatsApp +62 811 3823 875 [email protected]

The crossing ends where the operator's Raja Ampat luxury cruise season begins, which is why many guests sail one leg and continue east on another vessel.