Dani Soares Reveals the Future of Her Yachting Career After Welcoming Her First Child

Dani Soares joined the Parsifal III crew in Season 2 of Below Deck Sailing Yacht unsure of what her next move would be. She had lost her best friend and soul mate a few months before the charter season began, someone Dani thought would be "the person I was gonna live forever with," she said on the show. After several years in the yachting industry, Dani also expressed a desire to begin her next chapter, including settling down and starting a family.

So, after the charter season ended, Dani took a big leap and set out on a new adventure, moving to Sydney, Australia. "It's amazing," Dani said of her new home during an exclusive interview with Bravo Insider in early May. "Honestly, this is such an amazing country, and I'm so, so happy that I'm lucky enough to live here now."

Dani, who is originally from Brazil, previously spent some time in Australia before moving there permanently. "So I had an ex-boyfriend. We were together for like five years, and he was Australian. So I've been here in the past, you know, few years on-and-off, spending [months] in Australia," she said. "And I just fell in love with the country. And I was like, well, I think I should try and live there, because, you know, it's honestly the best country."

Dani has also decided to pursue a new land-based career in Australia. In addition to currently working as a beauty therapist, she is also studying to become a nurse after enrolling in school earlier this year. "A few boats that I worked on, I was a medical officer, which means that I had to have a first aid course. I had to take care of medical equipment and stuff like that," she said. "So I always enjoyed this side of things, but I just felt like I had no time to do a degree, you know? I just felt like, oh, it's such a long time. It's such a mission. And I just want to do something that I can be like, I'm actually helping, I'm actually changing people's lives, you know? And I was like, this is the time now, I'll just go for it."

Of course, Dani has also notably added a new title to her resume since this season of Below Deck Sailing Yacht: Mom. After announcing that she was expecting her first child, a baby girl, earlier this spring, Dani welcomed daughter Lilly on May 27.

When Dani spoke to Bravo Insider, it was a few weeks before she gave birth, and at the time, she said that juggling her work as a beauty therapist with nursing school, all while getting ready to welcome her first child was going well — although she acknowledged that could all change once her daughter arrived. "It's a lot of work. I have to have my schedule all organized to study and everything. But it's fine. But once the baby's here I'm not sure [laughs]. Because, obviously, I have to come back to work quite soon, so it would be work, baby, and school full-time," Dani explained. "So, yeah. We'll see. I want to try and make it work. And I hope I can. Nothing's very planned at the moment, just kind of going with it."

However, Dani said that now that she's a mom, she probably won't be returning to yachting anytime soon. "I would never say never. But it would be quite hard staying away from the baby for a long period of time, you know, especially because I have nobody to leave the baby with in Australia, for example. So that would be really weird. So maybe not for now. But you never know, maybe one day," she said. "Maybe I can come back as a nurse on a bigger boat or something like that. You never know."

Dani said that she is still figuring out where she wants to take her career in healthcare once she earns her nursing degree. "Yeah, I definitely need something fast-paced," she said. "I was a flight attendant before and then seven years in yachting. Now doing this [working as a beauty therapist], standing on my feet all day. So I don't know, maybe [I'll] work in an ER, being like the first contact for patients. Or maybe even midwifery. That would be really cool, helping bring babies into the world. It'd be so amazing. So I guess I'm just gonna wait for my placement and see how I feel about it."

Though she is now settling into a very different kind of life in Australia, Dani said that she has taken a lot from this season of Below Deck Sailing Yacht with her, from appreciating chief stew Daisy Kelliher's leadership style to all of the friends she made among the Parsifal III crew. "The girls, you know, like the whole crew, we were very close. And it doesn't matter if people are so different from you, you can still find things to relate to and to get to know each other," Dani reflected on some of her biggest lessons from the charter season. "If you open yourself to different experiences, things can turn out [laughs] in a very unexpected way, you know? So, yeah, just be open. Just be open for different people, be open for different experiences, and you never know what's [going to happen]."

But as you can see, now with her baby girl in tow, Dani has been making plans for the future, sharing that she "100 percent" hopes to stay put in Australia. "But I have said I've settled many times, so I will never say never [laughs]," she said. "We'll see what happens. But so far, the plan is to settle here and live here forever."

After experiencing the excitement of a transient yachtie lifestyle for so many years, Dani said that she is now happy to be taking things at a different pace. "[I'm] just looking forward to having a normal life. I haven't lived [in one place] for so many years. And I'm looking forward to doing that now and having my hairdresser, my local restaurant, and those little things," she said. "So yeah, just looking forward to having a normal life."

Want more Below Deck Sailing Yacht? New episodes air every Monday at 9/8c or catch up on the Bravo app.