Wailuli

The first thing I noticed as we throttled out of Labuan Bajo at 7:00 was how the wind caught the spray off the bow, sending fine mist over my arms as the sun climbed behind Rinca. Wailuli, a 14.5-metre speedboat, wasn’t about lounging—it was about covering ground. By 8:30, we were circling Komodo Island, cutting the engine near Loh Liang where the rangers waited to guide us ashore. The dragon walk started in thick forest shade, but within minutes we were above the tree line, sweat rolling down our backs as we watched two Komodo monitors pace near a watering hole.

After lunch on deck—grilled fish, fresh papaya, and iced tea—we motored to Manta Point. The skipper dropped us just upstream of the cleaning station, and within two minutes, a pair of mantas glided beneath me, their mouths open, gill plates pulsing. I’d seen reef sharks before, but nothing like the size and grace of these. One passed so close I could see the barnacles on its shoulder. We drifted for nearly 40 minutes, snorkeling in the current, the boat following us slowly to keep us in the zone.

Late afternoon took us to Pink Beach. The sand really is pink, but not from a distance—it’s when you’re standing on it, looking down, that you see the coral fragments mixed in. We had about 90 minutes there, long enough to swim out to the mooring buoy and spot parrotfish tearing at the reef. The crew had laid out towels and chilled water on the shaded side of the boat. I remember sitting cross-legged on the deck, peeling a mango one of the crew handed me, watching the light turn gold over the hills.

We didn’t stay for sunset. Wailuli turned back toward Labuan Bajo around 16:30, skimming across the strait as the sky deepened. The ride was bumpy in patches—this isn’t a catamaran—but the skipper knew the swells and adjusted course to keep us from getting soaked. By 18:00, we were back at the marina, limbs tired, skin salt-stiff, but buzzing from having seen so much in one day. It wasn’t luxury, but it was efficient, real, and packed with wildlife.