Pecio dique del Oeste

Four modern hulls rest on the sand on the sea side of Palma's west breakwater, south of the port, close enough together that the dive reads as several wrecks in one. The guided descent follows the anchor rope onto the main wreck, a freighter sitting upright with its deck at 27 m. Its antenna mast reaches up to 18 m, nine metres above the deck.

The holds are easy to dive. On the bridge every window has been removed, which opens the way into the interior, and a guide can take qualified divers on to the engine and passenger rooms. Hundreds of damselfish hang around the stern. From the main hull the circuit moves on to three more: a 40 m mixed freighter, a motor glider of 18 m and a freighter of about 25 m. A planned dive runs around 35 minutes, in usual visibility of about 10 m, and the deepest water reported is 31 m. How long the largest hull is depends on who is asked, from 37 or 40 m up to 60 m, and the sinking is dated to the 1970s by some accounts and to 1980 by others.

The mast does the work here. The antenna tops out at 18 m, so the first thing a diver meets on the way down is a thin steel spar standing in blue water with the hull still nine metres below it. The same wreck keeps its bridge open, and the missing windows are the way in.

The boat leaves the Illetes base eastwards and takes about five minutes, passing the Porto Pi caves along the west dam.

We rate this Advanced Open Water, or a deep-diver card: the mast top at about 18 m is the shallowest part of the dive, the main deck is at 27 m and the maximum given is 31 m, and one local centre requires advanced or deep certification. Interior swims are overhead dives. Go inside only with the training for it and a guide, and keep the exit in sight. The wrecks lie beside the port approaches, where shipping traffic is the one difficulty operators list for the site, so the ascent belongs on the anchor line or under a deployed surface marker buoy.