Pecios del Puerto del Carmen

The standard plan inverts the usual shallow-first logic. Divers drop straight onto the 38m hull at the far end of the harbour wall, hover briefly at the propeller, and work the trail backwards through the chain of vessels toward the jetty. Bottom time at depth is short; the rest is staged ascent.

The descent is over sand with the wall on one side. The propeller is the photographic anchor and the feature operators reliably name. On clear days the upper hulls resolve out of the water column as you climb: each next vessel emerges from the blue at a shallower depth. Mid-depth boats sit at 25m, then 20m, then 15m, wooden hulls at different stages of breakdown and colonisation.

The shallowest hull is wedged under the jetty rocks, close enough to the surface that part of it disappears into the foundation stones above. Yellowmouth barracuda hold loose schools over the deck during the safety stop, and the sand between the hulls is where angel sharks settle when present. A side wall near the ascent carries a small cave with yellow and white sponges that some guides take in as a macro detour.

Puerto del Carmen has walls, caverns, and shore reefs in the same boat radius, so the trail format is what sets this site apart. Most wreck dives in the area are single hulls or single decks. Here the dive is a vertical tour: one hull per depth band, with the guide adjusting the maximum to suit the certification mix on board. The same trail serves a newly certified OW diver staying on the shallow end and a Deep-trained diver dropping to the propeller.

The other distinguishing element is the angel-shark association. The Canary Islands hold one of the last remaining populations of Squatina squatina, an IUCN Critically Endangered species that has largely vanished from the rest of its Atlantic range. Operators flag the sand between the hulls as a likely resting substrate without promising the encounter. That single overlap of a recreational wreck circuit on top of one of the species' few remaining strongholds is the dive's strongest pitch.

Historical accounts describe the wooden boats as having been sunk to seed dive tourism somewhere in the 1970s-1980s, though specific vessel names and sinking dates are inconsistent.

Buoyancy and trim do most of the work here. The sandy bottom silts up in seconds with poor finning, and divers behind you will lose the next hull in the chain if the group ahead settles or drags through the sand. Hover, don't settle.

The 38m hull sets the gas budget. Bottom time at the propeller is short on either air or nitrox, and the rest of the dive needs to fit on the way back up. Agree the turnaround depth with the guide before splashing. A delayed surface marker on the ascent is sensible, given small-craft traffic above the harbour entrance. A torch helps for looking inside the wooden hulls and for the sponge cave on the wall return.