Twelve months on the water around Komodo, read for a six-cabin phinisi

The year splits in two: dry from April to November, wet from December to March. That split is the first thing to learn, and the month table adds four more columns: sea, visibility, manta rays and crowds.

April, May and June are the calm, clear months, with the south-east wind only starting to build at the end of June. September to November bring the sea back down and visibility up. Those two spells are where most parties of a private boat find the easiest water. January and February are the other end: the roughest sea, the lowest visibility and the fewest boats, and the best months of the year for mantas.

These are general seasonal patterns, not a forecast for your week, and we say so once here so that we need not say it in every line. The captain reads the real sea on the day, and the captain decides which stop comes first.

Light moves through the year, and so does the Padar morning. Sunrise over Padar comes at 05:54 in January and 06:04 in April; July brings 06:18, October 05:39 and November 05:31. The table lists all twelve months. April to June sit close together, at 06:04, 06:07 and 06:14, so the early start barely moves in the calm months.

The walk starts about an hour before the sun is up. A wake-up that suits July is far too late for November, when sunrise comes almost 50 minutes earlier and the walk begins in full dark. The sun does not wait for the slowest walker.

Pick the month for the sea and the crowd first. Then read the sunrise line for that month. If the early start worries anyone in your party, tell us, and we plan the second morning around it. Short version: plan around the sea you want. Calm water and clear reef sit in the dry months, while July and August trade some of that for the best chance at open trips.

Kalong is the dusk stop on the first day of the three-day route. Watch the clock at sunset: fifteen minutes later the flying foxes leave the mangroves. Keep the half hour after sunset free on day one; dinner can wait until the bats have passed.

Sunset falls at 17:57 in July, 17:55 in October and 18:27 in January. The span across the year is under an hour, but it decides whether the bats pass over your dinner or over your last swim. The table gives every month.

The boat spends the night where the weather and the captain decide that day. Nothing else about the night is fixed, and we do not write it as if it were.