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It’s no secret that being on a vacation is conducive to romance. Particularly, holidaying on a liveaboard means you get to spend a week alongside your crush, delighting in a series of catered mini-dates. You can enjoy beautiful sunsets, open sky dining, endless hours to talk, a late-night kiss on the bow, plus a splash of underwater adventure.
Explorer Ventures’ guests Jose Russa and Jennifer Koenitzer found love on our liveaboard. They met on our Maldives yacht in 2014 – and are now happily married! Their story is a reminder of how love can find you in the most unlikeliest of places. Read their tale below.
“Jenny and I met on EV’s boat in the Maldives which at the time was the Carpe Vita back in March of 2014. It was an unlikely meeting since she was living in Germany and I in NJ at the time. We both had signed up through an online dive travel group. I wasn’t even supposed to be on that trip, but the trip leader needed another person on it and I switched from a different trip onto this one. Luckiest move I ever made! There we started chatting in the group’s forum in the couple of weeks leading up to the trip. She was a newer diver and I had a couple of hundred dives at that point so I offered to buddy up with her to help work on her dive skills, and admittedly to get to know her better. We’ve been dive buddies ever since!
After Maldives, Jenny’s work in pharma luckily put her in a position to visit the northeast on business. She was able to extend the trips a few days for us to spend time together. We also went on another dive trip together. Then, in November 2014, about 8 months after meeting we were engaged! We announced our engagement to our friends on the Humboldt Explorer, New Year’s Eve week 2014/2015, our second EV trip together.
How did we know each other was the one? We both thought about it and both said we just knew somehow. We literally spoke on the phone every single day since the Maldives and with the time difference, we had to get creative. I think what did it for me was that I couldn’t stand the goodbyes at airports anymore. Towards the end of a week-long visit in November, we were talking and I realized that I was spending the time apart from her thinking about when I would see her again. Dreading when I would have to see her go. It hit me she was the one and I spontaneously blurted out we should get married. She looked at me shocked and asked if I was serious. I thought for a second, hey am I serious? And, instantly I knew I was. She said yes! We’ve been happily married since January of 2016.
I’ve been on the Caribbean Explorer II (before meeting Jenny) in January 2013, Maldives’ Carpe Vita in March 2014, Galapagos’ Humboldt Explorer in December 2014 (announced engagement), the Turks & Caicos Explorer II in November 2017 (an early 1 year anniversary trip) and we are looking forward to our next trip to be back at Turks & Caicos Islands. That will be my 5th and Jenny’s 4th with EV! We also have a return trip planned for the new Tiburon Explorer for some time in early 2022!
Why has EV been such a big part of our story? Great crews, great captains, great chefs, great boats, and great destinations. When two people share the same passion for diving, all that is needed is the right setting and if you’re lucky, you find a great dive buddy for life!”
Jose Russa & Jennifer Koenitzer
