The charter season is over in Belize and the boats are on their way to the Rio, in Guatemala, for their annual maintenance. I thought this would be the perfect time to post a selection of our favourite photos, from some of our most memorable experiences, while working for Belize Sailing Vacations.

So many great memories!

Photo Credit: some of the below photos were taken by guests, specifically Andreas and Andrea Jensen, and they have graciously allowed me to use them for this post, and include their two beautiful daughters :) Thank you, Jensen family!

the view from below... getting to know the local Nurse Sharks

these guys are so beautiful and peaceful, and they love their sea grass. Rufus and I affectionately refer to them as "sea cows" :)

our guide, Ally, interacting with one of the rays - they know her well and greet her personally whenever she gets in the water

these two photos were taken while under way, sailing to the next

island - perfectly calm and clear — island - perfectly calm and clear

the view from our cabin port hole, while we were sailing

seagull trying his luck for a seafood snack off the back of the boat

fresh shrimps prepared the Danish way, for our Danish guests. D is for DELICIOUS!

these two gorgeous girls stole my heart!

there was no one else on or around this island besides the two of us, our two guests and our boat anchored in the background.

chasing a crab up a tree, doing his best crab claw impression

a coconut is not the best hiding place, as it out...

exploring the curious and colourful town of San Pedro, on Ambergris Caye, in the north of Belize. definitely worth a visit, if only for the locally hand-made organic chocolate (!!!).

you can take us out of South Africa but you can't take us away from the braai! this is one of our favourite charter meals to prepare: chicken, sweet pepper and pineapple sosaties (kebabs) on the ideally charcoal, not gas, braai (barbecue)

making furry friends on South Water Caye

The day we arrived back in Belize, after the Caribbean Sea crossing, we got the news that Rufus' mom was ill. None of us knew at that stage that she had Leukemia but, over the next few days during the prep for our next charter, it escalated from being "tired and needing blood transfusions" to "full blown, advanced AML" and emergency prep for chemo.

There is always a time of stress before a charter begins, the last few hours to get everything perfect before the guests arrive (which isn't so bad actually, unless you are a perfectionist...) and then there is the wait to meet our new guests and gauge their "vibe" in the first hour or so, which is extremely important as it sets the tone for the rest of the charter.

This specific charter was for a couple, Ken and Elizabeth, on our company's smallest boat, Sea Dale. She is a 38ft Leopard and we are rather fond of this boat, not just because she is South African designed and built, but because she is a great boat to sail and live on. The other bonus is that we get to host mostly couples on her, because she is smaller, which means the charter is more personal and you almost always end up becoming friends.

We collected our guests in Belize City, at our base in Cucumber Marina, and sailed 6 nights down south to Placencia. We were obviously more stressed and distracted when this charter started, because of what was happening with Ma back home, but after a few minutes with Ken and Elizabeth, discussing their love of good food, world travel and music we immediately relaxed and we knew this was going to be a great few days ahead.

We had so much fun exploring the southern islands, which Rufus and I hadn't yet had the chance to visit in such perfect weather, we enjoyed great meals together (I am always more relaxed and creative when our guests love food as much as we do!), snorkelling, exploring mangroves and deserted islands, dinghy rides, swimming, photography, music and great conversation.

During those seven days we made the decision to fly back to South Africa, immediately after the charter was done. We want to thank Ken and Elizabeth for being such a great couple to share that charter with. They didn't know about Ma until the end of it, but by just being the relaxed, positive, happy, inspiring people that they are they helped us to take our mind off things back home and zero'd our work stress :)

Just to show you how perfect the weather and destinations were (and to make you a teensy bit jealous) here are some photos of that route - no editing/filters/photoshopping whatsoever. Enjoy!

this friendly "little" guy followed us around the island (Ranguana Caye) and was quite keen on having his photo taken. Did I mention that I haven't edited these photos at all? - not even cropped them... That is the actual colour of the water. In every photo - no tricks.