Pelabuhan Ratu tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 11:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are Asia/Jakarta local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Last spring tide on Thu 07 May (range 1.0m). Next spring tide on Wed 13 May (range 0.7m). Next neap on Mon 11 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

Pelabuhan Ratu — 'Queen's Harbour' in Sundanese — is a fishing town and bay on the Indian Ocean coast of West Java, in Sukabumi Regency, roughly 100 km south of Bogor. The bay faces southwest into the open Indian Ocean, which means it receives long-period southerly swell generated across thousands of kilometres of fetch. That exposure, combined with the bay's curved geometry, has made it a recognised surf destination and a working port for offshore fishing fleets simultaneously. Tides here are mixed semidiurnal. BMKG (Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika) data for the Pelabuhan Ratu area records a mean tidal range of approximately 1.5 m above Chart Datum. The mixed character means that while two highs and two lows occur within each 24-hour period, they are unequal in height — a higher high, a lower high, a higher low, and a lower low. The difference between the two daily highs can reach 0.5–0.8 m on spring tides. For mariners entering and leaving the bay, reading that diurnal inequality matters as much as knowing the basic high/low cycle. The surrounding waters, particularly the approach to the bay mouth, carry a longstanding association in Sundanese culture. Local fishing communities have observed the stretch of coast for generations, and the figure of Nyai Roro Kidul — the Queen of the South Sea — is part of that cultural relationship to the Indian Ocean along the southern Java coast. This is a genuinely held cultural framework, not a tourist construct, and it reflects the communities' historical respect for and wariness of a stretch of water that is physically demanding: strong swell, rip currents around the bay headlands, and variable surface conditions driven by the trade wind cycle. The physical explanation for the sea's character at Pelabuhan Ratu is the ocean's direct exposure to the Southern Hemisphere westerly and southerly swell systems, not any supernatural agency — but dismissing the cultural context would miss how local maritime knowledge is encoded and transmitted. For surfers, the most consistent breaks around the bay activate on a 1.5–2.5 m south swell with a 12-second-plus period. Conditions deteriorate quickly when the tide runs full — the shorebreak becomes heavier and some point breaks close out. The cleaner window for most spots is mid-incoming to low tide. BMKG publishes tidal predictions for Pelabuhan Ratu. Open-Meteo Marine data shown here has typical uncertainty of ±45 min on timing and ±0.2–0.3 m on height.