About Magia II
We keep the bow trim just right when punching through the Dampier Strait chop at first light – too nose-heavy and you ship green water, too stern-down and the prop bites air. At 26 meters, Magia II isn’t the longest boat out here, but she’s built for these waters: double-plated hull, twin 480hp MANs, and a draft that lets us tuck into coves near Wayag or Arborek where others can’t reach. She’s not a fleet boat – just one master cabin, which means every trip is private. Our crew of six knows how to time the Rip at Cape Kri or the slack before diving at Melissa’s Garden.
The boat runs out of Sorong, not Labuan Bajo. That’s where most VVIP boats start, but Magia II’s home is Raja Ampat proper. We anchor in the Four Kings’ inner lagoons – Yenbuba, Mioskon, the stretch between Gam and Batanta where the mangroves drip over the water. At dusk, we drop the hook near a Biak village, fire up the generator for the jacuzzi on the master deck, and set the daybeds facing the shore. No crowds, no speedboat wakes. Just the sound of fruit bats crossing the treetops.
One cabin means no scheduling conflicts. You decide the dive plan: five dives in a day or just two and a beach picnic on Piaynemo’s sandbar. The dive platform stays down all morning if you want. We carry two 15L tanks per guest, nitrox on request, and a full set of rental gear if needed. The compressor runs between dives, not at night. We’ve timed the engine shutdown so it doesn’t interfere with sleep. The dinghy’s 40hp Yamaha is rigged for fast drop-offs – like when we sprint from Sardine Reef to the manta cleaning station at Mioskon before the current turns.
Meals are served in the shaded aft deck or under stars on the upper lounge. Our chef sources reef fish from local canoes – snapper, emperor, wahoo – and pairs it with papaya salad, steamed taro, or sago pancakes. No frozen meat, no canned sauces. Breakfast is fresh papaya, local coffee, and fried banana fritters. We don’t do buffets. Everything’s plated. If you want coffee at 5:30 a.m. for a dawn shoot at Wayag, it’s already brewing.
This isn’t a rotating group charter. You book the entire boat. That changes how we operate. We’ll reroute to避开 strong tides at Boo Windows or skip a site if the swell’s running. We’ve waited out afternoon storms in the shelter of Kabrey Island, cracked open a bottle of red, and watched the lightning crawl across the Arufura Sea. It’s not about ticking sites – it’s about reading the water and adjusting. Magia II’s size lets us do that. We can’t host eight couples, but we can give one family or group complete control.
