‘Joanie’ holds a 500-ton USCG captain’s license and scuba instructor certifications. She became a diver in 1972, an Instructor in 1976, a captain in 1978 and began her own charter operation in New Jersey in 1980. In 1981 she sailed her boat, the Lady Cyana, south to Florida, landed in the Florida Keys and forgot to go home. There she founded and until 1991 operated Lady Cyana Divers in Islamorada. She then returned to diving and charter projects in New Jersey, Florida and the Caribbean.