Palawan

Palawan stretches roughly 450 kilometres from the northeastern tip at Busuanga down to Balabac Island near Borneo, a long ridgeline of limestone karst, old-growth forest, and fringing reef separating the Sulu Sea on the east from the South China Sea on the west. The tidal signal differs on each coast. The Sulu Sea side, facing the Bacuit Archipelago at El Nido and the bays around Coron on Busuanga Island, runs a mixed semidiurnal pattern with spring range at Puerto Princesa of approximately 1.5 to 2.0 metres. The South China Sea side, where Port Barton faces west-northwest, runs a similar pattern with a spring range of approximately 1.2 to 1.8 metres; the two coasts do not synchronise exactly because of how the tidal wave wraps around the island. PAGASA (Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration) is the authoritative tide source for Philippine waters, publishing predictions for the principal gauge stations. Palawan is one of the least-developed large islands in the Philippines, its interior ridge protected as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and its surrounding waters incorporated into the Tubbataha Reef National Park farther offshore. The terrain runs steep: limestone karst towers rise sharply from the sea across the Bacuit Archipelago, the highest cliffs dropping sheer faces into the lagoon channels between islands. Current through the passes between major islands — the channels separating Cadlao, Matinloc, and Tapiutan at El Nido, and the channels within Coron Bay at Busuanga — runs noticeably on spring tides, typically 1 to 2 knots at the constrictions. The tidal state shifts access to enclosed lagoons such as the Small Lagoon at Miniloc Island: the narrow cliff-base entrance slot requires the kayak to be close to the water surface, and at high spring tide when the water rises to within 0.3 metres of the ceiling the passage closes. Snorkelling visibility across the archipelago is generally best on the incoming tide, when cleaner open-sea water pushes into the shallow reef areas. The wet season runs June through October (SW monsoon, Habagat), the dry season November through May (NE monsoon, Amihan). Most dive and island-hopping operations run from November to June.