"A boat like this hasn't been built for over 20 years," Wan said.
Typically holding four or six people, the boat crafted for the journey can hold up to 18 people — though Maraos says only 10 to 13 voyagers will be in the boat at any one time.
Crafting the boat was a long and difficult process that took over a year. It began by chopping down large trees located deep in the island's mountains. The builders then used chainsaws, the only modern implement employed, to chop the trees into long segments that were removed from the jungle and assembled close to the sea.
"The hull is crafted from softwood and the keel is made from the pomatia pinnala tree — a hardwood found on the island," said Yang Cheng-hsien (楊政賢) a researcher at National Taiwan University.
Maraos shows how Tao boat builders take measurements by using his fingers, hands and arms. Seventeen separate pieces are fastened together with glue and wooden spikes.
"We use no measuring tools or [metal] nails," he said.
Once the boat is finished, symbols are carved and painted onto the side designating the origin of the family who crafted it. "This is a true friend of the earth," he says, motioning to a picture of the boat.
The beginning of the trip coincides with the end of Lanyu's fishing season. Flying fish are revered by the Tao and form an important staple food. The Tao catch only enough fish to feed their people and have no traditional system of commerce, instead sharing the haul among the island's families.
The Tao have witnessed depleted stocks of flying fish over the past years due to over fishing and pollution.
"The Han people do not know how to respect our environment or our flying fish because they want a lot of fish," Maraos said.
If the journey around Taiwan raises cultural and environmental awareness, the trip to the Batanes is meant to raise awareness of a different kind. The Ivatan people who live there are ethnically the same as the Tao.
"These are our people," said Maraos. "We speak the same language and we share the same culture," he said.
Indeed, recent archaeological evidence by anthropologists in Taiwan, Australia and the Philippines shows that intermittent contact between Taiwan and the Batanes has occurred for over 4,000 years, dating back to Neolithic times. Oceanographic information indicates a countercurrent flowing from north to south immediately to the east of the Kuroshio Current, which probably explains the cultural and linguistic similarities between the two island groups.
In addition to the dispute between the two islands, Dutch and Spanish colonization of the Philippines and Chinese colonization of Taiwan ensured a lasting separation of the Tao and Ivatan.
By using his tribe's boats as a means of reconnecting with the people of the Batanes, Maraos is fulfilling a lifelong dream.
"This is my ... and Lanyu people's dreams. Building a big boat [to travel] from one island to another island," he said.
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