Sandra Dolores Yawn was trapped on a Florida highway, left for dead, and pursued through the Red Sea by pirates.
In the summer of 2018, Leah Rae Shafer reached out to Yawn on Facebook to send her well-wishes. She tells Mr. Yawning next to Captain Sandy not because she thinks he needs his well-being, but because she's started watching “Below Deck Mediterranean” on Bravo.
The show follows a crew tasked with serving food to a rotating cadre of guests who charter a superyacht. The star of the series, Ms. Yawn is leading the charge. Ms. Shafer wrote a letter to congratulate the show on its success. There was another reason too. “I thought she was sexy,” she said.
Mr Yawn, 59, has been a yacht captain for more than 30 years. Her foray into television, which began in 2017, wasn't exactly planned. By his mid-20s, Mr. Yawn said, “I was a mess.” “I was always in trouble. I was kicked out of 11th grade. “I didn’t go to college.” When she was 13 and began spending her adolescence traveling between Dundee, Florida, where her father lived, and Bradenton, Florida, where her mother lived, she began drinking. By the time she was 17, “I had been arrested so many times I can’t even tell you how many times,” she said. Her parents usually bailed her out. Her father disowned her after her drunken incident, resulting in her being imprisoned.
In 1989, when she was 25, the revolving door of South Florida treatment centers she was pushing stopped spinning when a counselor told her there was no coming back. “She said, ‘Sandy, once she has money in her pocket, she’ll start drinking again,’” Ms. Yawn said.
Fearing actual jail time, she joined Alcoholics Anonymous. To pay off thousands of dollars in legal fees and addiction treatment center fees, she took a job washing boats in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At age 30, she earned her captain's license from Maritime Professional Training, a school in Fort Lauderdale. A product for sailors and yachting professionals.
Rehab (she still has an AA sponsor and attends meetings whenever possible) helped her get to the roots of her teenage rebellion. “I think a big part of my drinking was my inability to accept my sexual orientation,” she said. “When I got sober, I accepted that, oh my gosh, I actually like women better.”
Ms. For Shafer, that level of acceptance took much longer. Additionally, she lost her career as a gospel singer.
Ms. Shafer, 50, is an entrepreneur who started a skin care line, Skin by Leah, and a jewelry business with her friend, Cuff Me. When she sent Ms. Yawn a message in 2018 congratulating her on the success of her “Below Deck Mediterranean,” she was divorcing her husband of 20 years, living in Denver with her teenage daughter at the time. It was ahead. Ms. Shafer said the relationship became soured years ago, but her fear and uncertainty prevented her from leaving.
“I didn’t have to worry about finances because he took care of everything,” she said. Her gospel career in the non-denominational church began while she was attending high school in Hesperia, California. But it was mostly a labor of love.
Ms. Lee holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Northridge. “She traveled and went to college at the same time,” Shafer said.
By her thirties, she was recording albums, touring megachurches, and singing at major Christian gatherings. Her interest in worldly acting in the 2000s led her to star in the revival of “Star Search” in 2003-04 and later to have a recurring role on NBC's “The Singing Bee.”
But “I loved God and I loved inspiring people. And the platform I was given was the church stage,” she said. Her only problem was, “I didn’t have any money for it.”
Before their divorce was finalized in 2019, she and her husband received therapy and prayed together. Finally, in 2018, she said, “I just took the leap.” “I took a leap of faith. “I wanted freedom.”
She found it financially first. She said Skin by Leah Studio, a Lone Tree, Colorado-based facial salon she founded in 2017, was an immediate success. When she first saw Ms. Yawn on TV, she was settling into life as an entrepreneur. She didn't expect a response from her to her Facebook message. But when she received the invitation three months later, in October 2018, it came with an invitation.
In addition to her career as a TV star, Yawn began touring with “I Believe,” a series of motivational talks designed to inspire women in leadership positions. She said that when she finally read Ms. Shafer's message – even though she had thousands piled on top – something drew her to Ms. Shafer's message. She was looking for celebrities to attend her lectures.
Mr. Shafer included a video of him singing the national anthem at a Denver Broncos game in 2014 in his message. Mr. Yawn responded immediately after clicking the link. “She gave me her phone number and she said, ‘I heard you sing,’” Ms. Shafer said. “‘Let’s meet and talk about how we can do something together.’”
The two continued to communicate by phone and email. Mr. Yawn was living in Los Angeles at the time. Mr. Shafer was planning a Disneyland vacation with his daughter Lauren in November, and the trip gave him an excuse to meet Mr. Yawn in person.
Both say they fell in love within seconds of Ms. Shafer pulling into Mr. Yawn's driveway in mid-November 2018. “I offered to park her car for her, and then we hugged,” Ms. Yawn said. “I felt an energy I had never felt before. I knew I had to pay attention to that.”
It was a life-changing hug for Mr. Shafer, too. “It was an unusual feeling when I met Sandy,” she said. “She was not the stern captain you see on TV. She was so much fun and so beautiful. “That hug made me melt.”
Over dinner at Catch, a seafood restaurant in Los Angeles, they acknowledged their fascination. “I was really honest with her,” Mr. Yawn said. But Mr. Shafer wasn't ready to date a woman. “I knew I wanted to be with her,” she said. “I was just scared.”
At the end of the evening, Ms. Yawn told her to take her time. It's been two years since Mr. Yawn's last relationship. “So at that point I was like, ‘Why the rush?’” she said. “I am older and have learned many lessons. One was to let things happen naturally. “You have to be slow and steady to win the game.”
Six months later, the race was over. The women were in a committed relationship, and Ms. Yawn moved near Ms. Shafer's home in Denver. Things were going smoothly until the end of 2019, when news of the two people's romance began to circulate through the entertainment industry.
The public outing marked the end of Mr. Shafer's gospel career. “I thought everything would end the moment I came out that I was in love with a girl, and it did,” she said. Six CDs sold in dozens of church bookstores were taken off the shelves and delivered to her doorstep. Christian radio stations stopped playing her music.
“I’ve been working for 35 years,” she said. “And it’s over.”
Most painful of all were the comments after her father died from COVID-19 in 2020. “People at church said my father died for my sins,” she said. “But he came to meet and greet Sandy before he passed away, and I thank God that that happened.” Now, “our family loves Sandy.”
Ms Yawn lost her parents to heart attacks before she became a TV star. He lost his father in 2006 and his mother in 2009. In 2015, Yawn was hit by a car while riding his motorcycle to the Miami Boat Show. . The driver left the scene. “He felt his mother’s presence while flying through the air and felt peaceful,” she said.
When she hit the pavement, her pelvis was fractured and her feet were “on their side,” she said. But by then she was used to navigating life and death scenarios, including fires at sea and clashes with pirates. She attributes her courage and empathy to her own sobriety, qualities that were highlighted in her 'Below Deck Mediterranean,' which she joined in 2017. “I have nothing to hide and I can share everything,” she said.
In 2022, Yawn and Shafer purchased a home together in Parker, Colorado. In September 2023, while Mr. Yawn was filming in Greece, Mr. Shafer flew overseas to visit. Mr Yawn proposed with a diamond engagement ring on the beach with violinists playing in the background.
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On May 11, Ms. Shafer and Ms. Yawn were married in Fort Lauderdale aboard She's a 10 Too, a superyacht lent to the couple by their friend Carolyn Aronson. Fifty-five people attended, the maximum number allowed on board the ship. Among them were 'Below Deck Mediterranean' cast members Aesha Scott, Kate Chastain and Dave White, known as Chef Dave. (Yes, I was filming it with a camera.)
Wearing a long white wedding gown by Leah Da Gloria, Ms. Shafer walked down the aisle with her two brothers, Matthew Dale and Justin Dale, to an altar decorated with white roses and hydrangeas. Her daughter, now 18, was her maid of honor.
Mr. Yawn, dressed in a white Veronica Beard suit, was escorted down the aisle by his brother-in-law, Mark Dunham. Yawn's sister, Michelle Dunham, was her maid of honor. As is common on yachts, most guests were barefoot. An exception was allowed for brides and their wedding parties.
“Below Deck Mediterranean” showrunner Nadine Rajabi, who was ordained in the Universal Life Church, got married on the back deck of the yacht’s bridge. The weather made the task more difficult. The wind broke microphones and blew pages away. What she says around her. But she couldn't let anything distract the brides as they read their handwritten vows.
Mr. Shafer said he taught Mr. Yawn to be more optimistic, more playful and “jumpy.” Mr. Yawn told Mr. Shafer that he had been patient and gracious.
The captain hoped the event would end without tears. But soon after her marriage was announced she said it was not possible. “The moment I saw Leah in her and started reading all of her reasons why I loved her, I started crying,” she said. “It’s truly amazing to find this kind of love that will last a lifetime.”
Today
when May 11, 2024
where She's a 10 Too aboard a superyacht in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
rescue mission The couple chose “She's a Lady” as their first dance at their onboard reception. Chef Dave prepared a three-tiered rib cage and gluten-free vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry cakes that were ready to collapse in the wind and heat (temperature was 90 degrees).
cruising After the wedding, the brides went on a five-day honeymoon to Little Palm Island on a yacht lent by Mr. Flynn. Of course, Mr. Yawn took the lead.
from now on In June, Yawn and Shafer will move from Denver to Ponte Vedra, Florida, to be closer to Dunham, who runs the Jacksonville School for Autism, a private school for autistic children in Jacksonville. The expected. On June 3, Season 9 of “Below Deck Mediterranean” premieres on Bravo. And on July 1, Ms. Shafer plans to open a skin care studio in Ponte Vedra.