Dori (Liberty Ship Wreck)

The Dori sits just outside Ponta Delgada harbour on the south coast of São Miguel, with the island bulk and the São Roque shoreline directly to the north (the harbour breakwater lies a couple of kilometres to the west), so the whole northern half of the compass is blocked and the dominant W-NW Atlantic groundswell only reaches the site heavily attenuated after wrapping around the island's western cape. That shelter is exactly why the wreck is a calm, all-levels dive. The exposed window is the open Atlantic to the south — the SE-through-SW sector is fully open — so it is a persistent southerly swell or a sustained S-SE wind that builds surface chop, stirs the sandy bottom and cuts visibility, and is the usual reason a Dori dive gets called off. Being open ocean, long-period south or wrap-around west swell can still make it lumpy on the surface even in otherwise fine weather.