I’m just back from a dive trip to Pico in the Azores and wanted to share some details for anyone who might be interested. I dove with CW Azores and can’t recommend them enough.
Coming from the UK it was fairly straightforward in terms of flights, short flight to Lisbon, over night just beside the airport at the Star Inn and then a short morning flight to Pico.
I booked 3 shark dives with the aim of seeing blue and possibly mako sharks. I had a trip to Princes Alice seamount which is 48miles from pico so that’s a 3 hour each way trip plus double tank dive.
I did 4 local boat dives around Pico and Fial and enjoyed them. Sightings included eagle rays, string rays, eels, big schools of barracuda, grouper aggregation at 7m which the guide said they were about to spawn. There were also large groupers, plus all the common smaller coastal species of the Atlantic. There is part of a sperm whale jaw bone which is sad but was interesting to see at the dive site beside the whaling museum at the shore on Fial. Water temp for the local dives was 18C at the coldest, average 22-23C and warmest of 24C.
The Princess Alice trip did not disappoint, we saw up to 20 Mobula with the biggest 4m wing tip- wing tip. There were stingrays amongst the Mobula, giant amber jacks, huge schools of barracuda, yellow fin tuna, endless schools of smaller tuna. It really is a great dive site.
We did 2 dives of 60 mins each with the water an average of 22C. First dive was to the top of the pinnacle which sat at 34.8m
3 whale sharks were spotted in the week I was there, as well as the first video of a great white shark in the Azores- 2 days before I dived there. Unfortunately I did not see, but for the lucky group they loved it.
The 3 hour trip was absolutely fine, seas were calm and we saw 4 pods of different dolphin species , bottlenose, common, striped and spotted. As well as a sei whale which is the first whale I have ever seen. Other groups reported sights of breaching sperm whales.
I completed 4 sharks dives when I was there, and they didn’t disappoint.
I had booked 3 shark dives over my trip with CW, however this left a day spare. The night before I checked with the next door company Pico Sport to see if they had availability and luckily they did. However this was the worst weather day of the whole trip, we got set up at the dock and were on a RIB for 7 hours before we found any sharks. We did a 45 minute dive and had 3 sharks for 10 mins . There were 2 blues which came close but a mako made a brief appearance in the other direction to the blue shark and unfortunately I didn’t see it.
The next 3 dives were with CW Azores and they were much better. First dive the seas were still quite rough and it took us 4 hours to find any sharks - however we had a 90 minute dive - the first 30 mins with a blue shark, 30 min gap, I was first in the water so first out - but then another blue shark appeared so I got geared back up and back in for another 30 mins . The dive was at only 6m average.
The 2nd last shark dive was a 62 minute dive with a blue shark approx 3m which stayed with us the whole time. It unfortunately had a hook In its gills which we noticed as soon as entering, as the shark was so calm the guide removed it at approx the 40 minute mark. After another 2 mins I signalled to the guide that the shark had another fishing hook in one of its claspers- ouch. He made attempts to remove it but was unsuccessful.
The last dive was the shark dive of the trip- calm seas and the best shark dive by a nautical mile. I was first in and the guide knew it was my last dive so he let me be last out, we had a 96 minute dive with a 3m blue shark who made unbelievably close passes the whole dive. Unfortunately I never saw any makos but I will include a picture from my friend I met at the hostel who did one shark dive his whole trip and had good mako interaction.
The water was average 22-23 on the shark dives and the depth was 10-2m depth.
I dove in my 5,4,3 my surfing wetsuit and while occasionally a bit chilly had no issues.
I will say I preferred the way CW dove over Pico Sport as with pico they had 4 drop lines and made divers clip to a line in pairs. I found that the current made the lines bump into each other and I really didn’t enjoy that. With CW they had 2 lines which were more heavily weighted and they just asked the divers to hold on at appropriate depth based on where the sharks were. I was lucky we had less divers on my CW trips with the 3 dives having between 4 and 6 divers where as the sport dives had 8. I think this was genuine luck however we CW will also take 8 on a shark dive. I haven’t edited any images as these are straight off my camera , I just wanted to post the report ASAP.
I stayed in a hostel called Loving Strangers when I was in Pico and I can’t fault them. It was a 10 min walk to the dive centre and the supermarket was on the way. The weather was very humid and warm topside and whilst I wanted a private room they were unfortunately full, so I stayed in the dorm. The beds all have fans but I was too warm 3 of the 8 nights. The private rooms have AC, and are exceptional. The hostel was spotless clean and the hosts serve dinner on average once every 2 nights , 20euros for a 3 course meal plus all you can drink local wine. It was a great place to meet new people and I am glad I stayed there.
Feel free to ask any questions and I hope some of you enjoyed the report.
Coming from the UK it was fairly straightforward in terms of flights, short flight to Lisbon, over night just beside the airport at the Star Inn and then a short morning flight to Pico.
I booked 3 shark dives with the aim of seeing blue and possibly mako sharks. I had a trip to Princes Alice seamount which is 48miles from pico so that’s a 3 hour each way trip plus double tank dive.
I did 4 local boat dives around Pico and Fial and enjoyed them. Sightings included eagle rays, string rays, eels, big schools of barracuda, grouper aggregation at 7m which the guide said they were about to spawn. There were also large groupers, plus all the common smaller coastal species of the Atlantic. There is part of a sperm whale jaw bone which is sad but was interesting to see at the dive site beside the whaling museum at the shore on Fial. Water temp for the local dives was 18C at the coldest, average 22-23C and warmest of 24C.
The Princess Alice trip did not disappoint, we saw up to 20 Mobula with the biggest 4m wing tip- wing tip. There were stingrays amongst the Mobula, giant amber jacks, huge schools of barracuda, yellow fin tuna, endless schools of smaller tuna. It really is a great dive site.
We did 2 dives of 60 mins each with the water an average of 22C. First dive was to the top of the pinnacle which sat at 34.8m
3 whale sharks were spotted in the week I was there, as well as the first video of a great white shark in the Azores- 2 days before I dived there. Unfortunately I did not see, but for the lucky group they loved it.
The 3 hour trip was absolutely fine, seas were calm and we saw 4 pods of different dolphin species , bottlenose, common, striped and spotted. As well as a sei whale which is the first whale I have ever seen. Other groups reported sights of breaching sperm whales.
I completed 4 sharks dives when I was there, and they didn’t disappoint.
I had booked 3 shark dives over my trip with CW, however this left a day spare. The night before I checked with the next door company Pico Sport to see if they had availability and luckily they did. However this was the worst weather day of the whole trip, we got set up at the dock and were on a RIB for 7 hours before we found any sharks. We did a 45 minute dive and had 3 sharks for 10 mins . There were 2 blues which came close but a mako made a brief appearance in the other direction to the blue shark and unfortunately I didn’t see it.
The next 3 dives were with CW Azores and they were much better. First dive the seas were still quite rough and it took us 4 hours to find any sharks - however we had a 90 minute dive - the first 30 mins with a blue shark, 30 min gap, I was first in the water so first out - but then another blue shark appeared so I got geared back up and back in for another 30 mins . The dive was at only 6m average.
The 2nd last shark dive was a 62 minute dive with a blue shark approx 3m which stayed with us the whole time. It unfortunately had a hook In its gills which we noticed as soon as entering, as the shark was so calm the guide removed it at approx the 40 minute mark. After another 2 mins I signalled to the guide that the shark had another fishing hook in one of its claspers- ouch. He made attempts to remove it but was unsuccessful.
The last dive was the shark dive of the trip- calm seas and the best shark dive by a nautical mile. I was first in and the guide knew it was my last dive so he let me be last out, we had a 96 minute dive with a 3m blue shark who made unbelievably close passes the whole dive. Unfortunately I never saw any makos but I will include a picture from my friend I met at the hostel who did one shark dive his whole trip and had good mako interaction.
The water was average 22-23 on the shark dives and the depth was 10-2m depth.
I dove in my 5,4,3 my surfing wetsuit and while occasionally a bit chilly had no issues.
I will say I preferred the way CW dove over Pico Sport as with pico they had 4 drop lines and made divers clip to a line in pairs. I found that the current made the lines bump into each other and I really didn’t enjoy that. With CW they had 2 lines which were more heavily weighted and they just asked the divers to hold on at appropriate depth based on where the sharks were. I was lucky we had less divers on my CW trips with the 3 dives having between 4 and 6 divers where as the sport dives had 8. I think this was genuine luck however we CW will also take 8 on a shark dive. I haven’t edited any images as these are straight off my camera , I just wanted to post the report ASAP.
I stayed in a hostel called Loving Strangers when I was in Pico and I can’t fault them. It was a 10 min walk to the dive centre and the supermarket was on the way. The weather was very humid and warm topside and whilst I wanted a private room they were unfortunately full, so I stayed in the dorm. The beds all have fans but I was too warm 3 of the 8 nights. The private rooms have AC, and are exceptional. The hostel was spotless clean and the hosts serve dinner on average once every 2 nights , 20euros for a 3 course meal plus all you can drink local wine. It was a great place to meet new people and I am glad I stayed there.
Feel free to ask any questions and I hope some of you enjoyed the report.
