The seasonal cycle of the South Java Current is explored using current measurements with satellite-tracked drifters and climatological compilations of ship drifts. It is shown that the changing monsoon winds and the variations of the freshwater flux from the Indonesian archipelago are responsible for the annual cycle of the flow, while the actual reversals between the seasons are strongly influenced by remote forcing through equatorial and coastal long waves from the central Indian Ocean. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1992