Below Deck Mediterranean‘s Captain Sandy Yawn deals with a lot of drama on the high seas — so when she’s back on land, she prefers to unwind in nature.
“[My partner and I] love to explore, go for walks, take the Jeep out and watch the sunset,” the Bravo personality, 57, says exclusively in the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now. “There’s never a dull moment in our lives.” Sandy spends much of her day back home in Colorado — where she lives with partner Leah Shafer — outdoors, whether she’s playing with her dogs at the park or watching the sunset.
When she does have to be inside, though, the captain manages to stay busy. On a typical day, Sandy is either at home answering emails or working on her upcoming book, Be the Calm or Be the Storm, or at events giving leadership speeches. She also has to make time to get some blood pumping at the gym: “[It helps] clear the mind.”
Sandy clearly values those moments of clarity and stillness, considering all of the drama she deals with while filming Below Deck: Mediterranean. The reality star sparked controversy among fans in 2020 when she decided to fire chief stew Hannah Ferrier, who had been part of the cast since its 2016 premiere.
“When the trust level is broken for me as a captain, I’m not taking anybody to sea,” Sandy told Us in September 2021 about the reason she decided to let Hanna, 35, go. “People [tried] to take my license over the years, really, because of things that happen [with the] crew.”
Though she has attempted to reach out to her former costar multiple times since then, the Florida native told Us last month that they still haven’t spoken. “Hannah doesn’t want any part of me,” Sandy said at the time. “I feel I’m happy for her in everything that she’s doing. Honestly — I’ve never had a feeling of hate. It doesn’t live in my heart.”
She continued: “I wish her well, and for some reason she blames me, but you know what? I’m sorry. I’m not gonna risk my career for anybody. I wish her well. … We’ve had great conversations in the past. Hannah used to come to my cabin often and I would hear a lot of her stories. So, there was a relationship there. But what can I do? I’m living my life. She’s living hers.”
Hannah, for her part, claimed in January that she always had issues with Sandy. “The way things can be edited — it was probably edited in a way where it looks like we were better than we were for the years before that we filmed together,” she alleged during an appearance on the “Kyle & Jackie O Show” podcast. “We weren’t friendly at all. It was every season sitting down with production going, ‘How can we get these two working together where it’s an environment where they can [coexist]?’”
Keep scrolling to see how Captain Sandy spends her time when she’s back on land:
