During her recent visit to New Zealand, Below Deck’s Captain Sandy Yawn spoke to Tara Ward about what it takes to survive the high seas.

Captain Sandy Yawn is leaning perilously over the side of a luxury superyacht. She may be surrounded by stunning Mediterranean scenery, but Yawn is too busy focusing on the nightmare in front of her to notice. A tangled anchor chain is preventing her yacht from sailing into port, disrupting the important plans of her wealthy guests and risking the boat’s entire charter season. The scene of unexpected chaos seems impossible to solve, yet the captain isn’t panicking. Yawn is as calm as the tranquil blue waters around her, but one thing is certain: that enormous knot doesn’t stand a chance. 

This moment from Below Deck: Mediterranean has stuck with me for years, and when Captain Sandy sails into Auckland on a whirlwind publicity visit, she smiles when I bring up the anchor. Her advice to her crew that day was simple: just work the knot. “Don’t think about what’s happening around you. That is your only focus,” she tells me over Zoom, speaking in the same calm and measured tones that she used in the Med. Later that day, I get flustered trying to find my car keys, and Captain Sandy’s words float into my head. “Work the knot,” I mutter to myself, channeling my own steely focus to drag my keys up from the murky depths of my bag. Oh captain, my captain.

This is exactly why Captain Sandy has survived seven dramatic seasons on Below Deck, the hit reality television franchise that has sailed into hearts and minds around the world. Below Deck follows the upstairs/downstairs world of the superyacht industry, capturing the glamorous vacations of the rich and famous and the frazzled lives of the hard-working crew who make it happen. As captain, Yawn has seen it all and is rarely rattled, from foolish crew mistakes to ridiculous guest demands and having to manoeuvre a large and expensive superyacht into a ridiculously small dock. 

Below Deck fans know Yawn for her forthright manner, her openness about her past struggles with addiction and her hands-on leadership style. But she’s also established herself as the franchise’s only female captain, an impressive achievement in an industry where women account for only two percent of yacht captains. Yawn admits she’s experienced plenty of sexism through her 30 year career (even on her first season of Below Deck, the chef assumed she was the chief stew), but she refused to let it define her path to success. 

“I never led with the female thing, I just led with the knowledge,” she explains, adding that any sexism she encountered simply made her more determined. “I didn’t pay attention to it. I didn’t care. I just knew I had a goal, and nothing was getting in my way.” 

Below Deck brought Yawn international fame, but it’s just one part of her extensive maritime career. After answering an American newspaper ad to wash boats, Yawn’s persistence and willingness to learn saw her work her way up to captain, helming boats from New England to the Persian Gulf. It wasn’t always plain sailing. While working in the Red Sea, Yawn needed to be rescued by a warship after her boat caught fire and drifted into dangerous waters. Such a terrifying experience would send most landlubbers into hysterics, but again, Yawn recounts the dramatic incident in her typically steady, matter-of-fact way. 

“You’re adrift, right? You’re not really controlling where you’re heading. You’re drifting back to shore towards Yemen territory, which is in a civil war. Yeah, that was challenging.”

Yawn’s life changed course in 2015 when a friend recommended her to a Below Deck producer, and while she admits to having some trepidation about joining the reality TV show, it seemed like an opportunity Yawn couldn’t turn down. “I was like, why not?” she says, shrugging her shoulders. It took some adjusting to having cameras on board, but Yawn reckons the perks of the job make up for it. “You get to use the water toys, you have great chefs, you live this incredible lifestyle at the expense of these very rich billionaires. It’s kind of cool.”

As season nine of Below Deck: Med reaches our shores, fans will see a more personal side to Captain Sandy when she surprises her partner Leah with a marriage proposal. We’ll also see Yawn reunite onboard with New Zealand’s most successful reality star, chief stew Aesha Scott. Another grin comes across Yawn’s face when she talks about working with Scott, who she describes as a “pure, innocent” soul. “See this?” Yawn says, pointing to her huge smile. “It’s always like this. Aesha never takes it away, she adds to it.”

It took Yawn and her crew nine hours to untangle that messy anchor chain on Below Deck, but Yawn wouldn’t change it. Not only does Below Deck allow her to mentor and nurture the next generation of yachting talent, but she’s frequently contacted by show fans who are inspired by her leadership style and journey to sobriety. Despite the pressures of the role, these rewarding experiences means that Captain Sandy has no regrets. “Just when you think, ‘oh, I’m not so sure about this’, you meet someone and you hear how you helped change their life,” she says. 

Work the knot, indeed. I only wish I could have told her how she helped me find my keys. 

Below Deck: Mediterranean streams on Hayu and ThreeNow.