Pecio dique del Oeste

Four cargo ships lie on Palma Bay's sandy floor within a footprint that a single tank covers without rushing. Mooring to the main wreck's buoy, divers descend through open water to the deck at 20-25m, then follow the hull down to the sand at 28-35m where the keel rests. The largest vessel — roughly 60m in length — sits upright, its bridge, holds, and chimney all accessible in reasonable visibility. Schools of damselfish cloud the outer decks. Morays occupy every accessible crevice. Scorpionfish wait motionless on rusting surfaces. From the main hull, a swim across the sand leads to the adjacent freighters and a smaller sailboat, all within the footprint of one dive. Visibility is the defining variable: at around 10m the hulls resolve into coherent structures with real scale; on poorer days the wrecks materialise from the blue one section at a time, which gives the site an atmospheric quality absent from clearer-water reef dives.

Nowhere else on the island can a diver visit multiple large, penetrable wrecks without changing sites. Mallorca's dive portfolio runs heavily to open reef, caves, and reserve ecology; the Dique del Oeste cluster is the island's answer for divers who want steel rather than rock. The five-minute boat ride from Palma makes it the most accessible advanced wreck in the Balearics — a regular destination for Wreck Diver specialty candidates and for local divers who want a deep, atmospheric dive close to home. In low visibility, when the hulls announce themselves only as shapes emerging from the blue, it has a quality found at few wrecks this easy to reach.

The best-documented vessel is the Pecio Karelia, a cargo ship built in Santander in 1966 that operated commercial routes connecting Mallorca to Barcelona, Ceuta, and Melilla before retirement and intentional sinking in Palma Bay. All four hulls were placed on the seabed deliberately, with a mooring buoy permanently fixed to the main wreck for diver access. The site takes its name from its position seaward of the Dique del Oeste — the western breakwater of Palma harbour. Precise sinking dates for the full cluster were not confirmed in available sources.

Bring a torch — useful in moderate visibility and essential for the bridge, holds, and chimney of the main wreck. Ask the centre about current conditions before booking; visibility can vary significantly and is worth knowing in advance. Wear a 7mm suit at minimum: surface water in summer reaches 23-25°C, but the bottom at 30-35m holds 14-16°C regardless of season. Be aware of surface traffic near Palma harbour — ferry and commercial vessel routes pass close, and a deployed SMB on ascent is not optional.