Stress is the word of the day at the top of this week’s Below Deck Sailing Yacht. The crew is stressed that the boat’s not ready to receive guests. Captain Glenn Shephard is stressed that Tom Pearson isn’t competent or trustworthy enough to work the rest of the season. Tom’s stressed that Captain Glenn is about to fire him. And Gary King‘s stressed that Tom wants to talk to him about it. But rather than assuage the deckhand’s fears, the first mate passes the buck to Glenn, claiming whether Tom stays or goes is far above his pay grade. Things aren’t looking to good for Tom right about now.
And yet, there’s nothing to do but move forward. Because the fourth round of charter guests are on their way down the dock. Like, right now. Here goes charter number four! The boat’s barely left the dock and Tom‘s already making things worse for himself. Rather than, I don’t know, doing any of the million things that need to be accomplished on the boat, he chooses to sit with Colin Macrae and dissect his latest drama with Ashley Marti. Right in front of Captain Glenn! It’s the boating equivalent of the old restaurant adage, “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean.” And Captain Glenn is less than impressed that he has to prod the deckhand not once, but twice into doing actual work.
The boat eventually anchors at Cala Pregonda, and it’s time for the interior to prep for the guests’ meal of local Menorcan cuisine. And would you look at that? Ashley and Gabriela Barragan are even getting along as they set the table for dinner. Even though Ashley’s secretly fuming inside that Gary seems to have nothing but Gabriela on his romantic radar all of a sudden. But if you ask Gary, all three stews — including Daisy Kelliher — kissed him. Not the other way around.
Below deck, meanwhile, Captain Glenn is already hedging his bets and calling the onshore staffing agent to look for a replacement deckhand. However, he’s keeping that card close to his orange polo for not, not even letting Colin in on his plans when he asks in the crew mess. But from Glenn’s point of view, Tom still hasn’t understood the gravity of the situation that he put the boat in by nearly running aground. And if someone doesn’t have that basic level of judgement, you can’t teach it to them.
Chef Marcos Spaziani starts dinner service, and it’s honestly a lovely night. With only one charter guest dressed in a full-blown Spanish matador costume. The chef serves a traditional Spanish octopus with spicy aoli, lamb stew and some kind of butternut squash dessert. But the only thing I can focus on is the bald spot left on his head from where the poor guy literally scalped himself a few episodes back. Thank goodness the man’s hair grew back. Meanwhile, with Tom effectively benched, Captain Glenn puts Kelsie Goglia on anchor watch. Let’s hope another stew won’t wreck the boat overnight.
In the early hours of the morning, the anchor actually does leave the safe zone Captain Glenn has marked out for Kelsie on the radar. So to be safe rather than sorry, she wakes up Gary a little after 4 a.m. Even though there’s only five knots of wind. So there’s no real problem, but Kelsie gets a gold star for doing what Tom didn’t. And speaking of Tom, the more Captain Glenn considers his options, the more certain he gets that there’s only one solution. So when he calls the deckhand to the crew mess for a meeting the next day, it feels like a walk to the gallows.
Captain Glenn takes Tom to task once again for messing up on anchor watch. But the deckhand already knows what’s coming. So it’s hardly a surprise when Glenn fires him. And he takes it like a professional, only piping up to explain that he’s been deeply affected by things happening back home with his best friend’s dad’s health.
However, as Tom packs his things and makes his goodbyes — even getting a bit of closure with Ashley — I find it confusing that Glenn chose to let him go in the middle of a charter. It’s leaving the rest of the crew a man down in the middle of a charter. And his replacement has to go through an entire quarantine process anyway. So rather than asking Colin to step into a temporary deckhand role, why not just keep Tom on for a couple more days? It doesn’t make sense to me. But it’s Captain Glenn’s decision. Bye Tom! We’ll miss you?
To shake off the bad vibe once Tom leaves, Captain Glenn finally gets the boat back in sailing form, thanks to the long-awaited arrival of some wind. But having one less deckhand becomes glaringly obvious the second the boat anchors in Punta Prima. Gary tries to take a half-hour break at the exact same time the guests want to do water sports. And help themselves to raiding the laz for toys. Daisy‘s also left to watch the guests jump overboard — a deckhand’s job — while radio’ing Gary for help. Long story short, Gary would’ve been able to squeeze in a nap if Tom was still on board.
For dinner, Chef Marcos serves up a seafood-palooza. And between the mussels, scallops, lobsters, clams, calamari and more, there are lot of moving pieces. No really, they’re, like, fresh. Timing is critical for all the seafood, but somehow there’s a miscommunication between Marcos and Gabriela. So when the guests are ready to eat, there’s no food to serve. So Daisy‘s left wondering who exactly dropped the ball. The chef and second stew both throw each other under the bus. And the first course of shrimp tartare is served 20 minutes late. Good thing the guests are easy to please.
After the seafood-palooza is cleared away, it’s time for the crew’s talentless talent show. As specifically requested by the guests. Which is the only reason it’s happening. Colin serves as MC while the crew mates hurry through 20-second talent segments. Daisy and Gabriela — who apparently used to be a professional samba and salsa dancer — do a choreographed dance together. Marcos spins a pan on one finger like a basketball. Kelsie and Ashley bust out their Daisy Dukes and ponytails for some sort of line dance. Captain Glenn tells a bawdy dad joke that gets a big response from the guests. And Colin takes it home by busting out his guitar *swoon* for an original Elvis Presley-style song. But there’s one more surprise in store for the final number: Gary doing a striptease for the male primary to cap off the night.
The next morning is day three. And Kelsie‘s greeted at the end of her night watch by one of the guests, who’s up at 6 a.m. to watch the sunrise. Which seems like an insane thing to do on vacation, but OK. The bigger problem is that not a single other crew member is up yet. Not even Captain Glenn. Because you’re supposed to be sleeping that early in the morning on a luxury sailing yacht. So Kelsie is left to play stew, fetching the guest cups of coffee and keeping him company until Gabriela wakes up for the morning shift.
However, in the process, Kelsie ends up slacking on the rest of her deckhand work. And Gary is less than pleased when he gets up on deck. The cockpit’s not ready. The sofas and chairs on deck are all still covered. What was Kelsie doing in between making two cups of coffee? Were they those confusing K-cup pods? But rather than take his frustrations out on Kelsie, Gary vents to Daisy and turns the early-morning guest into an argument between them. Gary wants Daisy to acknowledge that the deck team is having to pick up the interior’s slack while still a man down. Daisy wants Gary to put the blame on Kelsie instead of her department. And the episode ends with the two department heads in a tense standoff, with neither backing down.
TELL US – DID TOM DESERVE TO GET FIRED? DID IT MAKE SENSE FOR CAPTAIN GLENN TO LET HIM GO IN THE MIDDLE OF A CHARTER? WHO HAD THE BEST TALENT AT THE TALENT SHOW? WAS THE EARLY MORNING MISHAP ON DECK KELSIE’S FAULT?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]
