I visited the Azores in July 2016. During this trip, I spent some time on Santa Maria and São Miguel. The main goal was hiking, so I left my underwater housing at home. A decision that was immediately punished by the sight of seven mobula rays and a fully grown mola mola.
The islands are quite small. There are seldom spots from where you can’t see the coast. Sometime you even see both north and south coast at once.