In the warm blue waters off the coast of Palawan—a long, slender island in the western Philippines—we set sail on a simple catamaran. The kind with outriggers lashed to the sides, a painted hull, and a crew who knew the ocean better than they knew the land. There were no tour guides. No filters. Just salt wind, distant limestone karsts, and rope-worn hands hauling us toward the horizon.

It was on that boat that The Stardust Pirates was born.