Top Snorkeling and Scuba Diving in Porto District

This is a rock dive. "Rodelha" is one of many underwater rocks located out of Lavra village. This rock looks like a cork with a 19m maximum depth and 5m as minimum. The diver can find here the usual marine life of this kind of environments, such as anemones, molluscs, crustacea and a variety of fish. Good for novice divers. Source: www.submania.pt (Reproduced with permission of the author) Out of Lavra village

This is a rock dive. "Prego" is one of many underwater rocks located out of Lavra village. With a maximum depth of 21m and a lower of 12m, this rock was baptized as "Prego" because of a crack that looks like a nail. "Prego" is the Portuguese word for nail. It's a nice dive where the diver can enjoy the anemone carpets, huge mussels the size of ones hand, sea bass and sea bream. This site is also dived for spear fishing as the crack is a good hide for adult sea bass and sea bream. There is a crucifix on the bottom of this rock in memory of a diver who lost his life while free diving. Any diver can enjoy this excellent dive. Source: www.submania.pt (Reproduced with permission of the author) One of many underwater rocks located out of Lavra village.

"Brenha" was a trawl fishing vessel, built in 1969. She was 32m long, 7.22m broad and 3.55m deep. The vessel sailed from Leixões harbour on January 23rd 1996, at 11pm, en route to northern Spain with her crew of 14 men and her Captain João Rebelo da Silva. Weather and sea conditions were rough, with heavy rain, strong winds and high waves. Minutes after leaving port, just out of Mindelo Village, she hit Guilhada Rock, which made a hole in her hull. The crew sent their first SOS at 11.30pm. They were saved by a smaller fishing vessel, named "O Desterrado". When help arrived there was not much to do other than save Brenha's crew, as the vessel was full of water and doomed. There were no victims to regret thanks to David Leocádio, captain of "O Desterrado", who fought against the storm to save those fishermen and bring them all back home, alive and well. Brenha sunk close to shore on January 4th 1996, at 00.30am. The wreck rests in 27m, on a sandy seabed with her keel firmly settled on a rock. She lies on her starboard, pointing west. Only the hull remains intact, because, when she sunk, the vessel rolled over on the seabed until she hit a rock where she came to rest. The mast and the antennas are gone and the bridge damage looked as if it was trod on. In 2003 the bridge structure disappeared and left in her place a hole that leads inside the wreck. It is possible to penetrate the wreck, however, great care is required as there are still fishing nets and loosing lines inside. This is a recent wreck but it is already full of marine life, turning this once fishing vessel into an artificial reef. Source: www.submania.pt (Reproduced with permission of the author) out of Mindelo Village

The U1277 was built in the Bremer Vulcan shipyard in Bremen - Vegesack, commissioned on the 3rd May 1944 and launched May 18th of the same year. Her command was delivered to Captain-Lieutenant Peter-Ehrenreich Stever. She belongs to VIIC class and was, originally, 67m (221ft) long, 6.20m (20ft) high and 4.74m (15ft) waterline beam. Two of her four engines (two diesel and two electric engines) that generated a power of 3200hp with a maximum speed of 17.6 knots on surface and 750hp with maximum speed of 7.6 knots when submerged. She displaced 769 tons on the surface and 871 when submerged. The sub had a range of 8500 miles at 10 knots on surface, 130 miles at 2 knots submerged, 3250 miles at 17 knots on surface and 80 miles at 4 knots submerged. She could submerge to a maximum depth of between 150m (495ft) and 180m (594ft) with a minimum crash-dive time between 25 and 30 seconds and she had the capacity to store 113.5 tons of fuel. The sub was fitted with four torpedo launch tubes on the bow, two on starboard and two on portside, and a fifth on the stern (all 533mm), carrying a total of 14 torpedoes. She also had anti-aircraft guns installed on the conning tower. These guns were 37mm automatic cannon and two twin 20mm machine guns. This submarine was integrated into the 8th flotilla, where she worked first as an experimental and instruction ship. On February 1945, because of the few remaining U-boats still active, she was transferred to Bergen (Norway), home of the 11th flotilla. This sub was now a front boat. Her first and only patrol was to sail across the Iceland Strait into the Atlantic and position herself on the entrance of the English Channel. The U1277 left port on April 22nd 1945. The crew was composed by 45 men, four of which were officials - The Commandant (Peter-Ehrenreich Stever), the First Subordinate officer (Johannes Malwitz), Second Subordinate officer (Carl Hermann Stachow) and the machine officer (Ernst Engel) - four sergeants and the remaining crew were sailors. The age of the crew of the U1277 averaged between 18 and 27. The U-boat was scuttled on the dawn of June 4th 1945 out of Cabo do Mundo, near Oporto, by order of her Commander, Captain-Lieutenant Stever, after sailing without course through the Atlantic for a period of one month (the Armistice was signed on the 8th of May 1945, one year after her launch into the water and almost one month before she was sunk). In October 1973 a group of sport divers and local fishermen went out to sea to find out the cause taking hold of all their fishing nets. It was with some luck and happiness that they found that the obstacle was the famous German submarine that sank on our coast at the end of the World War II. The sub rests since 1945 at 31m (102ft) on a sandy seabed, with the stern completely silted up and lain about 45 degrees on her portside. Althought the bow is missing, the four torpedoes launch tubes and the conning tower where all anti-aircraft guns were mounted is still visible. The hull is dressed with little white anemones (Sargatia elegans), thousands of types of small fish and the largest conger eels that can be found in these waters. Also huge octopuses and the amazing colony of pink anemones descending from the North Sea may be found here. These are some of the natural attraction of this wreck. On the conning tower, divers can only see the hard hull, made with 22mm solder rigid sheet metal, the periscope and the open hatchway. Even in this state of deterioration, the U1277 is still clearly one of the best and more interesting wreck dive sites of Portugal and the best in the north of our country. Source: www.submania.pt (Reproduced with permission of the author) 3N. miles NW from Porto de Leixoes.

Brazilian packet-boat built in 1913, owned by Lloyd Brasileiro Navigation Company. On July 31st 1934, around 5.00pm, this ship was sailing to Leixões harbour when a dense fog made her turn course and run aground 200m of Marreco beach. "Ruy Barbosa" was homeward bound from Hamburg and Antwerp where near 100 German Jews went onboard heading to Brazil. These persons were one of the first refugees to escape from Nazi Germany. Her crew was composed by 125 members. There was no casualties due the sea was flat. She had in her cargo hull around 2000 tons of goods, of which most was recover. She was 11.780 tons gross and 149m long. This ship had capacity for 650 persons. The sea claimed the ship and broke her apart. Nowadays divers can find the ship's boilers, the anchor and some metal debris on the sea bottom, at a maximum depth of 12m. Like all wrecks in this area, this site is full of marine life. Source: www.submania.pt (Reproduced with permission of the author) 4 nautical miles N from Leixões.

Big steamship (at least 70m long). Lots to see as this is still unidentified and only a handful of people have dived there. This is only accessible by boat (several miles offshore). Basic Trimix certification needed as this a wreck laying at 58m. Unidentified Steam Shipwreck is also known as Santo Andre.