Raja Ampat is a scatter of about fifteen hundred islands off the western tip of New Guinea. Getting there takes two flights and a patient day. That distance is why the reefs look the way they do. There is no large town on the islands, and only a few boats work the strait.

We go by phinisi, a wooden two-master built in Sulawesi, with eight cabins and a dive deck. The season runs from October to April, when the sea is flat and the water clear. Sari Wulandari leads every departure. She trained as a marine biologist in Manado and treats each dive as a field class, with a fish list and a quiet rule about what not to touch.