Ilhéu de Cima

Ilhéu de Cima is not one dive but several, all anchored around a small volcanic islet off Porto Santo's east coast. At the shallow end, the buoy at Ancoras sits at 6 metres over a sandy patch scattered with old fishing-boat anchors, along the islet's southern edge inside the reserve's golden-bream no-take zone: an easy, sheltered start for a Discover Scuba course or a check dive. A short hop away, Cabeço do Poio drops through rounded volcanic blocks that one operator describes as an "almost lunar setting," reported at 15 to 28 metres by a tourism feature. Pedra do Ginja, around 20 metres, is a rock formation named for a resident dusky grouper that closes the distance on its own instead of backing away. On the islet's northeast shore, Escadinhas is a free descent onto a steeper edge, divers report it running to around 33 metres, dived mainly when winds swing southerly. A short swim over rocks and boulders from the anchor point leads to A Gruta, a small cavern worth a torch. Confirm with your operator which of these named spots the day's trip actually visits: the difficulty and depth swing from a 6-metre beginner buoy to a 33-metre wall within the same small cluster.

Where Porto Santo's other sites are built around a single wreck or a single pinnacle, Ilhéu de Cima is a cluster: a scatter of separately named rock, wall and cavern dives around one small islet, each with its own depth and character, all reachable from a single anchorage. It is also the reserve's outlier on paper: Ilhéu de Cima is the one place in the whole marine protected area network where all fishing, including spearfishing, is banned outright, rather than merely regulated as it is elsewhere in the reserve. Below the surface, volcanic rock replaces the sand-bottomed bay setting of Porto Santo's two scuttled wrecks a few minutes away; above it, a working lighthouse has watched over the islet since 1901.

A lighthouse has stood on Ilhéu de Cima's northeastern point since 11 May 1901, staffed by keepers until it was automated in 1982; it is visible from the dive sites below, though not itself part of the dive, and gives the islet its alternative name, Ilhéu do Farol ("Lighthouse Islet").1 Around 20,000 visitors toured its interior between 2009 and 2019, before public access was restricted from March 2019. The islet has sat inside the Natura 2000 network since 2008, and since 2009 has been the subject of the "Life Ilhéus do Porto Santo" conservation project, running pedestrian trails, endemic-species signage and ongoing scientific research on land. Ilhéu de Baixo (Ilhéu da Cal), on the opposite side of Porto Santo, is a separate islet under the same protection category, not the same feature as Ilhéu de Cima: a distinction worth keeping straight when researching either one.

Every dive here departs by boat from Vila Baleira marina, about ten minutes to the islet cluster; there is no shore access and no liveaboard serves Porto Santo. The islet's outer spots sit more exposed to open Atlantic swell and surge than the sheltered bay around the two wreck sites, and divers name this, not current, as the bigger factor here. Current itself varies sharply by named spot: negligible at Ancoras and A Gruta, tidal near full and new moon at Escadinhas, and strong enough at Baixa do Max that Advanced Open Water is called for. Match your certification to the specific spot your trip visits, not to the cluster as a whole: Open Water is reported sufficient at Ancoras, Cabeço do Poio and Pedra do Ginja, while Escadinhas and Baixa do Max are described as needing Advanced Open Water. Some divers bring a torch for A Gruta's cavern interior. Scuba diving is explicitly permitted throughout the reserve.2 Dive reservations and the reserve's visitor credential run through the government's Simplifica portal. The reserve's current fee schedule prices the two wreck sites and the Garajau, Desertas and Selvagens reserves; Ilhéu de Cima does not appear in either category.3