Below Deck has some seriously sassy captains onboard. Their snark comes easily, as they each have a lot of weight riding on their well-epauleted shoulders. After all, the safety of everyone onboard is in their hands. One wrong move could cause serious injuries, or even the loss of a life.
Due to this, these leaders must set clear expectations and guidelines within their crews. Sometimes, they even have to lay down the law with their charter guests as well. Even still, people have peopled, and boundaries have been pushed. When this has happened, three of Bravo‘s captains have (so far) been able to remain calm.
Here’s looking at you, Captain Jason Chambers, Captain Glenn Shephard, and Captain Kerry Titheradge. Well done. However, the other two have not always reacted as evenly keeled as their peers. Instead, their frustrations reached boiling points that had each seeing red.
I’m not talking about speaking sternly to someone, like Captain Glenn did when his boat was crashing, or even when he was firmly stressing for Daisy Kelliher to add more ice to her cooler for the guests trip ashore. Instead, I mean full-on yelling and/or harsh words spoken, which would be hard to ever take back once stated. Case in point, here are the times that the two longest-running Below Deck Captains’ tempers flared to the point of no return.
Kelley Johnson vs Captain Lee
Kelley Johnson struggled when leading Below Deck Season 4’s deck team. Due to this, Captain Lee Rosbach had to pull him aside for a quick chat during Episode 6. Instead of listening to his superior though, Kelley fought back. A battle then ensued.
“You and I both look out the same windows, and we see the same dirt, and I’m wondering how come nobody’s taking care of it,” Captain Lee inquired. He also noted that Lauren Burchell, one of Kelley’s deckhands, had been up since 6:30 AM. Yet, she hadn’t been instructed to clean the yacht’s windows. Instead of immediately asking his deck team to correct this oversight, Kelley swiped his finger on the window, letting his boss know that the grime wasn’t his to clean.
“That’s all inside, that’s Kate…” Kelley began, but Captain Lee interrupted, growing annoyed. “Well, ok, fine, go downstairs and tell me that the salt is on the f*cking inside…and it’s been there for two f*cking days” he argued. At this, Kelley nodded his head yes, but his words were still combative.
“I feel like we get called out on a lot of things and you don’t always call Kate out,” Kelley whined. “Do you really want to go to war,” a now madder than a pissed on chicken Captain Lee yelled. When it comes to wit and snark, Captain Lee’s hysterical quotes win. As for his anger, when it reached this level, Kelley should have known to keep his mouth zipped.
Fully ticked off now, Captain Lee walked Kelley around, showing him the filth on the exterior surfaces. Kelley finally relented, but in his confessionals, he still blamed Kate. As for Captain Lee, his temper remained on high for several additional beats.
When Dolores Jumped In the Water
On Below Deck Season 8, a guest named Dolores caused Captain Lee’s tempers to flare even higher than they did with Kelley. During dinner, an intoxicated Dolores stood up, saying “gotta get in the water.” An annoyed Captain Lee shut this down, but Dolores headed to the swim platform and jumped in anyways. “Can I have some bacon?” she calmly asked while swimming.
This was the final straw for Captain Lee. He promptly went all in on this guest.
“You can’t have anything! You need to get your God d*mn ass back to this boat, NOW,” he screamed. When Dolores responded that she had paid a lot for this vacation, Captain Lee yelled “I don’t give a sh*t what you paid.” He then cut her vacation short, as his flared tempers had reached max capacity.
When Captain Sandy Lost It on Hannah Ferrier
Captain Sandy Yawn and her former Chief Stew Hannah Ferrier rarely got along. During Below Deck Mediterranean Season 3, Hannah and her boatmance, Conrad Empson, took the charter guests out for a cruise and a drink. This excursion took Hannah away from the yacht for longer than Captain Sandy liked. Therefore, she yelled at Hannah upon her return to the boat.
“You actually think what you did is ok?” Captain Sandy asked Hannah, who replied with a yes. Hannah thought that as long as the guests were happy, she was ok. Captain Sandy disagreed, stressing, “We’re done. The rest of this charter, you stay away from me.”
Things didn’t get any easier. In Season 5, Captain Sandy fired Hannah, and afterwards, she proceeded to follow Hannah off of the yacht, berating her for their years worth of built up tensions. When it came to Hannah, Captain Sandy’s tempers were often high.
Captain Sandy’s Frustrations With Malia White
Malia White was the Bosun for BDM Season 6. Here, she failed to report her deckhand David Pascoe’s fall from a hot tub to Captain Sandy, which caused the captain to question her usually favored Bosun. “Why wasn’t it reported to me?” she asked Malia, while staring at David’s massive thigh bruise. Captain Sandy’s voice then quickly rose, as she pointed her finger at Malia, stressing, “You, I am really disappointed at.”
“This is something you do not keep from the captain, at all,” Captain Sandy continued. “Understood…it was….” Malia began, but Captain Sandy cut her off, asking “It was what?” Malia knew better and went quiet, while her boss continued on, demanding that Malia immediately fill out an incident report out on her deckie. Captain Sandy’s flared tempers towards Malia were shocking, but thankfully, the rest of this season was (mostly) a success.
TELL US – DID YOUR TEMPERS FLARE WHEN WATCHING THESE BELOW DECK CAPTAINS REACH THEIR BREAKING POINTS? WERE THESE CAPTAINS FRUSTRATIONS JUSTIFIED?
