Captain Sandy Yawn of ‘Beneath Deck Mediterranean’ Marries Leah Shafer

Sandra Dolores Yawn has been locked up, left for lifeless on a Florida freeway and chased by way of the Pink Sea by pirates.
In the summertime of 2018, Leah Rae Shafer reached out on Fb to ship Ms. Yawn her blessings. Not as a result of she thought Ms. Yawn, who goes by Captain Sandy, wanted her properly needs, however as a result of she had began watching “Beneath Deck Mediterranean” on Bravo.
The present follows a crew tasked with catering to a revolving cadre of visitors who’ve chartered a superyacht. Ms. Yawn, a star of the collection, is on the helm. Ms. Shafer had written to congratulate her on the present’s success. There was another excuse, too. “I believed she was scorching,” she stated.
Ms. Yawn, 59, has been a yacht captain for greater than 30 years. Her foray into tv, which began in 2017, was not precisely foreordained. Till her mid-20s, “I used to be a multitude,” Ms. Yawn stated. “I used to be at all times in hassle. I received kicked out of eleventh grade. I didn’t go to varsity.” At 13, at first of an adolescence spent between Dundee, Fla., the place her father lived, and Bradenton, Fla., the place her mom lived, she began ingesting. By 17, “I used to be getting arrested so many instances I couldn’t even depend what number of,” she stated. Normally a mum or dad bailed her out. Her father’s refusal to take action after one drunken incident landed her an evening in jail.
In 1989, when she was 25, the revolving door of South Florida therapy facilities she had been pushing by way of give up spinning when a counselor advised her she couldn’t return. “She stated, ‘Sandy, as quickly as you get some cash in your pocket you’re going to begin ingesting once more,’” Ms. Yawn stated.
Fearing actual jail time, she joined Alcoholics Nameless. To start out paying off the 1000’s of {dollars} she owed in authorized charges and habit therapy middle payments, she received a job washing boats in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. By 30, she had earned her captain’s license from Maritime Skilled Coaching, a faculty in Fort Lauderdale for mariners and yachting professionals.
Rehab — she nonetheless has an A.A. sponsor and attends conferences each time attainable — helped her pin down the roots of her teenage rise up. “I believe an enormous a part of my ingesting was that I couldn’t settle for my sexuality,” she stated. “Once I received sober is once I accepted that, oh my gosh, I truly desire girls.”
For Ms. Shafer, that stage of acceptance took for much longer. It additionally value her a profession as a gospel singer.
Ms. Shafer, 50, is the entrepreneur behind a skincare line, Pores and skin by Leah, and a jewellery enterprise began with a buddy, Cuff Me. When she messaged Ms. Yawn to congratulate her on the success of “Beneath Deck Mediterranean” in 2018, she and her husband of 20 years, then dwelling with their teenage daughter in Denver, had been going by way of a divorce. The connection had gone stale years earlier, Ms. Shafer stated, however concern and uncertainty prevented her from leaving.
“I had the safety of not worrying financially, as a result of he took care of every part,” she stated. Her gospel profession at a nondenominational church had taken off when she was nonetheless in highschool in Hesperia, Calif. However that was principally a labor of affection.
“I toured and went to varsity on the similar time,” stated Ms. Shafer, who graduated from California State College, Northridge, with a bachelor’s diploma in liberal arts.
By her 30s, she was recording albums, touring megachurches and singing at main Christian conferences. A flirtation with secular efficiency within the 2000s landed her on the 2003-04 revival of “Star Search” and later a recurring function on NBC’s “The Singing Bee.”
However “I beloved God and I beloved inspiring folks, and the platform I used to be given was on the stage of church buildings,” she stated. The one drawback: “There was actually no cash in that.”
Earlier than their divorce was last in 2019, she and her husband tried remedy and prayed collectively. Lastly, in 2018, “I simply jumped,” she stated. “I took a leap of religion. I wished freedom.”
She discovered it financially first. Pores and skin by Leah Studio, her Lone Tree, Colo. facial salon that she based in 2017, was profitable immediately, she stated. When she first noticed Ms. Yawn on TV, she was settling into life as an entrepreneur. She didn’t count on to get a response to her Fb message. However when she received one three months later, in October 2018, it got here with an invite.
Along with her job as a TV star, Ms. Yawn had began touring with “I Imagine,” a collection of motivational talks she created to encourage girls in management positions. When she lastly learn Ms. Shafer’s message — 1000’s had been piling up, she stated, however one thing drew her to Ms. Shafer’s — she was available in the market for an entertainer for the talks.
In her message, Ms. Shafer had included a video of herself singing the nationwide anthem at a 2014 Denver Broncos recreation. As soon as Ms. Yawn clicked the hyperlink, she replied immediately. “She gave me her cellphone quantity and stated, ‘I heard you sing,’” Ms. Shafer stated. “‘Let’s meet up and speak about how we will do one thing collectively.’”
The 2 continued to speak on the cellphone and over e-mail. Ms. Yawn was then dwelling in Los Angeles. Ms. Shafer had been planning a Disneyland trip together with her daughter, Lauren, in November, a visit that gave her an excuse to satisfy Ms. Yawn in individual.
Each say they fell in love seconds after Ms. Shafer pulled into Ms. Yawn’s driveway in mid-November 2018. “I supplied to park her automobile for her, and that’s once we hugged,” Ms. Yawn stated. “I felt this vitality I had by no means felt. I knew I had to concentrate to that.”
It was a life-changing hug for Ms. Shafer, too. “It was not a standard feeling once I met Sandy,” she stated. “She wasn’t the strict captain you see on TV. She was simply so enjoyable and so lovely. That hug melted me.”
Over dinner at Catch, a Los Angeles seafood restaurant, they acknowledged their attraction. “I used to be actually sincere together with her,” Ms. Yawn stated. However Ms. Shafer wasn’t able to date a girl. “I knew I wished to be together with her,” she stated. “I used to be simply freaked out.”
By the top of the night, Ms. Yawn advised her she ought to take her time. It had been two years since Ms. Yawn’s final relationship. “So at that time I used to be like, ‘Why rush it?’” she stated. “I used to be older and I’ve realized a variety of classes. One was, let issues occur naturally. Sluggish and regular wins the race.”
Six months later, the race was over. The ladies had been in a dedicated relationship, and Ms. Yawn had moved to a spot close to Ms. Shafer’s in Denver. It was easy crusing till the top of 2019, when information of the couple’s relationship began circulating in leisure media.
The general public outing ended Ms. Shafer’s gospel profession. “I knew the minute I got here out as being in love with a girl it might be over, and it was,” she stated. Her six CDs, bought in dozens of church bookstores, had been pulled from cabinets and shipped to her doorstep. Christian radio stations stopped enjoying her music.
“I had labored for 35 years,” she stated. “And it was over.”
Most painful of all had been feedback after her father’s loss of life from Covid in 2020. “Individuals within the church advised me he died due to my sins,” she stated. “However he had met and are available to just accept Sandy earlier than he handed, and I thank God that occurred.” Now, “my household adores Sandy.”
Ms. Yawn misplaced each her mother and father to coronary heart assaults earlier than she turned a TV star — her father in 2006, and her mom in 2009. In 2015, she was en path to the Miami Boat Present on her bike when she was hit by a automobile. The driving force left the scene. “I felt my mom’s presence whereas I used to be flipping by way of the air, and I felt peaceable,” she stated.
When she hit the pavement, she had a fractured pelvis and her foot “was on sideways,” she stated. By then, although, she was used to navigating life and loss of life eventualities, together with fires at sea and run-ins with pirates. She credit her fortitude and empathy, qualities highlighted on “Beneath Deck Mediterranean,” which she joined in 2017, to her sobriety. “I’ve received nothing to cover and every part to share,” she stated.
In 2022, Ms. Yawn and Ms. Shafer purchased a home collectively in Parker, Colo. In September 2023, whereas Ms. Yawn was filming in Greece, Ms. Shafer flew abroad to go to. Ms. Yawn proposed with a diamond engagement ring on the seashore, with violin gamers within the background.
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On Might 11, Ms. Shafer and Ms. Yawn had been married in Fort Lauderdale aboard She’s a ten Too, a superyacht lent to the couple by their buddy Carolyn Aronson. Fifty-five visitors, the utmost allowed aboard the vessel, had been in attendance. Amongst them had been “Beneath Deck Mediterranean” castmates Aesha Scott, Kate Chastain and Dave White, recognized to viewers as Chef Dave. (And sure, there have been cameras filming.)
Ms. Shafer, in a protracted white wedding ceremony robe by Leah Da Gloria, walked down the aisle together with her two brothers to an altar adorned with white roses and hydrangeas; her daughter, now 18, was her maid of honor.
Ms. Yawn, in a white Veronica Beard swimsuit, was escorted down the aisle by John Flynn, a longtime buddy who employed her for her first captain’s job in 1991. Michelle Dunham, Ms. Yawn’s sister, was her maid of honor. Neither bride wore footwear. Not one of the visitors did, both — a standard yacht rule.
Nadine Rajabi, the showrunner of “Beneath Deck Mediterranean,” who’s ordained by the Common Life Church, married them on the yacht’s bridge aft deck, a job made harder by the climate: wind brought on her microphone to chop out and blew the pages of her speech round. However nothing might disturb the main focus of the brides and their visitors as they learn handwritten vows.
Ms. Shafer advised Ms. Yawn that she had taught her to be extra optimistic, extra playful and “to leap.” Ms. Yawn advised Ms. Shafer that she had given her endurance and charm.
The captain had been hoping to make it by way of the ceremony freed from tears. However that, she stated shortly after they had been pronounced married, was unimaginable. “The minute I checked out Leah and began studying her all the explanations I fell in love together with her I began to cry,” she stated. “It’s so wonderful to seek out this type of love in your lifetime.”
On This Day
When Might 11, 2024
The place Aboard the superyacht She’s a ten Too, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Rescue Mission The couple selected “She’s a Woman” for his or her first dance throughout an onboard reception. Chef Dave ready brief ribs and a three-tiered, gluten-free vanilla, chocolate and strawberry cake that threatened to topple within the wind and warmth (temperatures had been within the 90s).
Cruising After the marriage, the brides took off for a five-day honeymoon to Little Palm Island on a yacht lent by Mr. Flynn. Ms. Yawn was on the helm, in fact.
Onward In June, Ms. Yawn and Ms. Shafer will transfer from Denver to Ponte Vedra, Fla., to be nearer to Ms. Dunham, who runs a personal college for kids with autism, Jacksonville Faculty for Autism, in Jacksonville. On June 3, season 9 of “Beneath Deck Mediterranean” premieres on Bravo. And on July 1, Ms. Shafer will open a skincare studio in Ponte Vedra.