Azores
Azores
Nine islands rising from a mid-ocean ridge, where the open Atlantic keeps its wanderers.
Volcanic and isolated, the Azores sit on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge nearly 1,500 km from mainland Portugal. Seamounts such as Princess Alice draw pelagic species — blue and mako sharks, mobula rays, sperm whales — into open blue water far from any reef.
Conditions
- Season
- June–October
- Temperature
- About 17–23 °C
- Visibility
- Often 15–30 m in open water
- Entry
- Boat entries into open ocean, often over great depth
What this water asks
Ease with swell and open blue where nothing is guaranteed to appear, and stillness rather than pursuit if something does.
The Blue Heart
Blue shark (Prionace glauca)
A slender, deep-blue pelagic that ranges entire ocean basins, drawn to the Azores' seamounts in numbers few other Atlantic waters can offer.
Atlas sites here
Azores — Princess Alice
Portugal · Azores
Presence here
Presence notes appear here once enough divers have logged this water — the same house number the Tide holds everywhere.
Safety first
Every practice here fits entirely inside your existing agency standards and dive plan. Slow, continuous breathing only — never breath-holding, skip-breathing or hypoventilation on scuba. No exercise sits in task-critical phases such as descents, ascents or gas management. Mindful Diving is complementary to, and independent of, SSI, PADI, CMAS and RAID.
Dive this water with a trained practice
MD-1 Mindful Diver™ is studied online and practised on the dives you already make — including this one.