Catrapona

The wall at Catrapona begins around 34 metres, and the boat drops divers straight onto its top edge, north of Cabo Espichel. Access here is boat-only, out of Sesimbra's harbour. From the edge, the rock face runs vertically down to a sandy floor at 47 metres, bright enough at the base to reflect some light back up the wall. A small cave opens at the foot of the wall, reserved for technical divers; the recreational dive stays on the open rock and sand, around 40 metres, the site's average depth.

Most of what a diver sees at Catrapona is the open wall; the cave at its base is the part almost nobody reaches, held back for technical certification only while everyone else works the rock and sand around it. Yellow and orange gorgonians and hard coral cover the rock on the way down, and grouper, conger eels and small lobsters gather at the bottom. A dive here commits to that full character: read it as a wall dive first, with the cave as a technical-only extension for those qualified to go further.

Check the forecast with your operator a day out: this open stretch of coast catches prevailing Atlantic swell and wind year-round, and every source describing the site treats it as a dive for experienced divers because of that exposure. Plan the dive as a Deep Diver profile; the cave at the base is a technical-only add-on with its own training and equipment requirement, separate from the standard route. Water on the wall runs 16-20°C, with a 5 mm semi-dry suit covering summer here and a drysuit standard for winter.