[cappyjon431]

After going through a painful divorce I had pretty much sworn off dating and long term relationships. To "get away from it all" I changed careers and ended up captaining a boat in the Bahamas. Ten years after my divorce I decided I might be ready to start dating again, but because my boat only put into port (Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale) on Saturdays for provisions before heading back to the Bahamas, my options for dating were very limited.

At the suggestion of a friend, I decided to check out an online dating service. I was very reluctant because I always felt online dating services were for desperate types, and I didn't consider myself desperate. After viewing hundreds of ads, one particular ad stuck out. The young lady seemed adventurous, well read, intelligent, she loved the ocean, and wanted to learn to scuba dive (in addition to being a boat captain, I am also a scuba instructor). I decided to contact her and after corresponding online for a while we decided to meet for sushi when I was in port. Dinner was a wonderful experience with such an amazing woman and we decided to meet for lunch every Saturday when my boat was in port. When I had vacation time I certified her to scuba dive and we took several dive trips together. I felt myself beginning to fall in love. As the relationship progressed, I decided that it was time to leave my life "out at sea" and I got a shoreside job. We became an item and after about a year and a half we got married.

We had originally planned to elope since it wasn't either of our first marriages and we didn't want a big fancy wedding. We wanted to get married at a remote dive resort in the Bahamas, on the beach, at sunset. At some point prior to the wedding, my bride-to-be asked me if she could invite her mother, as it would break her mom's heart if she couldn't be there to witness the ceremony. While we had planned to elope, I didn't see any harm but I did feel that if we invited her mom, it would be unfair not to invite my parents as well. Things kinda snowballed from there, and before we knew it the resort was almost entirely booked with our families. We had our beautiful beachside susnset wedding on Andros Island in the Bahamas.

My wife is my best friend and we've been together for the last nine years. We've been on many great adventures together, including owning and operating our own dive shop on a remote Caribbean island in Panama. Our next adventure begins later this month when we move to TV.