As sure as Below Deck viewers can expect crew hookups and boat romances, there’s interior crew drama. The chief stew sets the tone for each season. Kate Chastain was a natural at antagonizing her staff and Hannah Ferrier always bemoaned a green stewardess. Better to be passive aggressive than train your team. Madison Stalker was subjected to massive PDA by her chief stew Jenna MacGillivray and Chef Adam Glick.
And now that Katie Flood has taken over as chief stew on Below Deck Mediterranean, it’s just inevitable that she will have some push back from one, if not two of her stewardesses. Usually a subordinate has an issue with authority, doesn’t get her job done, or just wants to gaze at the stars with her sweetheart in the style of Elizabeth Frankini.
Besides the fact that we’ve seen Kate fighting with her second stew, Lexi Wilson in the season trailer. Katie snapped at Lexi in the footage, “right now, I’m pissed off with you.” Lexi responded by saying, “I’m like, leaving,” before telling her mother on the phone that, “hey, mom. I’m quitting this boat.”
So it’s not a question of if but when the drama will surface. Katie told E!Online that, “s–t happens. That’s why there’s a show about it.” Yachting is such a unique environment with “different personalities,” working and living together. There’s no downtime or respite for crew that don’t get along, and it’s “impossible” to avoid conflict.
Katie explained, “it’s like, we’re still learning about each other, still figuring how to work together. In what world would that ever run completely smoothly?” She calls it a, “navigational process.” And while Katie doesn’t give any details about the conflict she will have with Lexi, she does reveal that she “would have not survived,” without Malia White.
RELATED: Katie Flood Says She Still Loves Jack Stirrup From Below Deck Mediterranean Season 4
Malia successfully ran her team last season, despite being the first female bosun on the show. Katie said, “she is incredible, she is amazing at her job. And, you know, I think we worked really well together, which helped blend in the rest of the crew. There wasn’t really [adversity] between us and deck.”
Apparently, Malia came to Katie’s defense many times. “I think together, we made that happen,” Katie explained, “and, you know, she saved my ass a lot of the time. You’ll see what I’m talking about. I could’ve not done the season without her.”
Reliving the “emotional moments” won’t be easy for Katie, though viewers “will be able to relate to the stresses of yachting. She admits to being in tears at times during the season. “I sure am not gonna enjoy watching myself cry on TV, I know my mom’s not gonna like that,” she explained, “I talk about it on the show, I do struggle with anxiety, and that was a really hard time for me, what I was going through at that particular time.”
RELATED: Katie Flood Was Annoyed By Mathew Shea’s Injury On Below Deck Mediterranean Season 6 Premiere
TELL US- WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HAPPEN BETWEEN LEXI AND KATIE? HOW DO YOU THINK MALIA WILL HELP?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
