Below Deck Med's Captain Sandy reveals wedding date days after surprise engagement

She is a famous international superyacht captain and celebrated star of Below Deck Mediterranean, traveling the world with the rich and famous. But Captain Sandy Yawn just can’t get over seeing photos of him staring at her on famous London buses, promoting her hit reality show, while visiting the capital.

“My face was all over the buses, it’s pretty cool,” she tells HELLO! when we meet last week. “I really love coming to the UK – I’ve visited many times over the years.”

Sparkling and bubbly and exuding a feminine calm during our chat, Sandy has plenty to celebrate. Not only will he appear in the eighth season of the popular show – which airs on Hayu UK from next week – which follows workers ‘below deck’ on the luxury yacht he captains, but the 58-year-old has just got engaged to his girlfriend with whom he was for five years, Leah Shafer. HELLO! meets just a few hours after announcing the happy news.

“I prepared the proposal for six months and I thought I would have this beautiful experience with my words. But I got nervous and everything came out so quickly, so the moment passed too quickly. But it was beautiful. I cried, cried and made her me to read my words again because I wrote down what I wanted to say.”

The couple plans to get married soon. “September is her birthday month and that’s when I proposed to her, so I said we should get married during my birthday month, February. We want to do it in the Florida Keys, barefoot on the sand,” he says.

When not filming Below Deck Med, Sandy – who splits her time between Colorado and Florida, where she and Leah currently build a home – still enjoys sailing regularly and giving corporate appearances, often discussing topics from her book Be the Calm or Be the Storm: Leadership Lessons from a Woman at the Helm. She’s currently in the middle of a UK tour, which ends in Manchester this week (26/09) and where she’s being interviewed live on stage by author Riyadh Khalaf.

“I love it because it’s very interactive with the audience and I have no idea what Riyadh is going to ask me. I just have to roll with it. I think the audience sees a side of me, a playful side, that they don’t see on TV.”

In Below Deck, Sandy comes across as a thoughtful captain who thinks twice before punishing unruly crew and isn’t afraid to get down on her hands and knees to help with household chores when needed. Helping comes naturally to her.

“That’s how I was brought up, I grew up working,” she says. “If you’re leading a team and you see how hard they’re working, why wouldn’t you help them? We want to win, so for me, the ultimate win is providing a certain level of experience for the client, while also taking care of my team.”

Challenging gender stereotypes by working in a male-dominated industry herself, she’s used to the casual sexism that often results in guests asking Sandy if they can speak to the (male) captain. “It happens all the time,” she says. “It doesn’t annoy me and sometimes it becomes a lot of fun. I think our show has created a change on a global level; I get messages from women all over the world saying ‘Oh my God, is that an industry I could work in?'”

The upcoming season, set in Italy, will once again be filled with drama, both among the crew and among the (often high-maintenance) guests.

Sandy didn’t hesitate to sign up for another series, despite not wanting to take part in the series when it was first offered to her. “I was afraid it would ruin my career, and then I thought, ‘When things just fall into your lap, you should take a chance.’ I keep coming back because I think I have a responsibility to the fans now. I’m not an actor, our show isn’t scripted – what you see is what you get.”

Filming of each season lasts six weeks, and the cameras record every moment. Admitting that at first it was ‘weird’ for her to get used to life under the lens, she now says: “Over the years you learn that it’s almost like they’re not there. I’m not ashamed, I’m going to share everything because it defines who I am today – all these experiences. “

One of those experiences is her journey with alcohol addiction; she proudly says she has been sober for over 34 years. “The only reason I’m here today is because I’m sober.” And she is proud to be a role model for many. “I was at a Pink concert and an eight-year-old girl came up to me and said ‘Can I be the captain too’. I answered her: ‘Where is your mum, because I wonder why she’s letting you go’. watch our show!”

Below Deck Med’s Captain Sandy reveals wedding date days after surprise engagement

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