The Caribbean Sea and the islands it holds are an absolute paradise. Soft white sand beaches lined with palm trees, perfectly clear water the colour of a glowing emerald, and bright blue skies with puffy white clouds.

If you’re sailing here it’s good to have a shoal draft boat. Ideally, your draft should be no more than about 150cm (about 5 ft.) to get closer into shore and more sheltered anchorages. Of course deeper draft boats can sail here as well, it’s just that many of the shallow water anchorages are unavailable to them.

This anchorage was known for having great snorkelling with stingrays. The water is shallow and warm and the rays collect here to clean themselves on the abrasive sand. They’re very friendly and will swim right up to swimmers and offer their bellies to be petted – they’re very smooth and soft, similar to the texture of a wet hotdog.

Location: Caribbean Sea off the coast of Belize