Cruises from Santa Maria Island

Santa Maria Island is one of the smaller of the nine islands in the Azores archipelago, lying to the east and the southernmost of the other islands. While all are volcanic and seismic in origin, Santa Maria has had no recorded volcanic activity since the islands were settled. Santa Maria was the first of the then uninhabited Azores to be discovered, by Diogo de Silves in 1427. Portuguese settlers arrived in the mid 15th C and brought with them domestic animals and planted crops.