Skip to main content

It was a birthday bonanza weekend for two Below Deck Mediterranean crew members. Both Captain Sandy Yawn and Tiffany Copeland celebrated a birthday on Sunday, February 23.

While the two yachties didn’t celebrate together both crew members celebrated on boats. Yawn was in her hometown of Fort Lauderdale, Florida for business but had a huge birthday blowout over the weekend with friends and family.

Sandy Yawn and Leah Shafer
Sandy Yawn and Leah Shafer |Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Copeland was also on the water, but it appears that she ended up having to work on her birthday this year. “Thanks for the #birthday wishes! Hoping to celebrate for real tomorrow when the boss is gone, and next weekend when I’m hopefully back home!” she shared on Instagram.

Captain Sandy has a lot to celebrate

Yawn was a featured guest at the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women fundraiser luncheon. While in South Florida, Yawn revealed that she had a heart attack two years ago while she was working out at Soul Cycle. “I was in Soul Cycle in the middle of Beverly Hills, I was on my bike, I felt the pain and I realized, ‘Hey this actually happening to me,’” she shared during an appearance on a local NBC news station. “As a woman, I didn’t want to disturb the class.”

Instead of calling 911, Yawn summoned an Uber because she didn’t want to draw attention to herself. Of course, she urges people to always call 911. When Yawn arrived at the hospital she told the staff, “My left arm is going numb, I have chest pains and I need an EKG now.”

Thankfully the medical team was able to quickly identify the problem. Yawn had previously undiagnosed high blood pressure that created a spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), which is a tear in the heart’s blood vessels. “My health is great and it was great. That’s misleading to think that you have to be unhealthy to have a heart attack, that is not it. My veins are clean,” Yawn told People. “… I didn’t know I had high blood pressure, so as a result, I had what’s called SCAD, which they don’t have a lot of information on … I didn’t have blockage, it was a tear.”

Both yachties are celebrating love too

Both Yawn and Copeland found love this year too. Copeland announced she was engaged in September. She shared a funny story about her engagement on Instagram. Her boyfriend traveled to Virginia where Copeland was docked and rode out Hurricane Dorian on the boat. While the couple took a breather, Copeland was looking at photos on her boyfriend’s phone. That’s when she discovered a photo of her engagement ring. “I saw a ring. Oops! But luckily it was a day earlier than he had planned asking, but at least we have a funny story,” she shared.  

Yawn also found love this year. She announced last spring that she was in a loving relationship with singer Leah Shafer. The two have been inseparable ever since and the couple could not be happier. “It was like a spiritual connection in the beginning,” Shafer told Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “She has a passion for inspiring through music and the youth. And broken people and so do I coming from the gospel industry. That’s what brought us together. And then, of course, the attraction and falling in love with a beautiful soul and knowing you want to be with someone forever. I’ve never felt that way before.”