Lockdown love story
Congratulations to Dominic Kiernan, 2nd Officer & Sanyukta Sade Ankamah, Spa Manager who got married onboard Azura last month. After meeting in 2020, the two were married at sea by Captain Neil Turnbull, making it an Azura family affair & cause for celebration. We caught up with Dominic who shared their lockdown love story with us …
“Sanyukta and I met at our last company in early 2020, whilst the ship was doing a season in Asia. She was about to finish her contract and fly home to Mauritius, but due to covid her flight was cancelled and we got stuck on board together as the ship made its way back to UK waters to anchor up.
We spent every minute together on board and so after she’d been repatriated back home, I surprised her and booked flights to Mauritius spending two weeks confined to a hotel room in quarantine before being released onto the island; even had to pay for the pleasure! We had a great time exploring the island and I met her family.
After my visit I had to go back to work and at a similar time she moved over to P&O Cruises initially joining Azura. We didn’t see each other for over a year and missed each other by 1 day in most ports during the winter 2021 Caribbean season (literally ships passing in the night, as Azura sailed west out of Barbados and the ship I was working on sailed east inbound for Barbados the next day).
Fortunately in early 2022, I managed to get a job with P&O Cruises and guess which ship they told me they were thinking to place me on…?! Azura. Of course I bit their hand off, and since then we have been working hard to align our rotations as much as possible, which has, for the most part been possible due to support from the ship and company.
We spent last summer at home together, and I proposed to her on the hiking trail ‘the path of the gods’ on the Amalfi Coast, Italy. We tied the knot on board Azura on the 20 February 2024, during a ceremony conducted by Captain Neil, in the presence of our family and my two best friends”.
