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How Captain Sandy Feels Temporarily Stepping in as Relief Captain on Below Deck (UPDATED)
Plus, see Fraser Olender, Hayley De Sola Pinto, and more of the Below Deck yachties’ first reaction to the news.
UPDATED (December 20, 11:30 A.M.): Captain Sandy shared a sweet message with Captain Lee on Instagram after Monday's episode ended. "Always happy to help a fellow captain when called upon. Here’s to your quick recovery," she wrote. "And your boat will be waiting for you when you get back later this season."
The original story continues below.
Below Deck's Captain Lee Rosbach made the difficult choice to take a temporary break from his duties due to his ongoing health problems on Monday's all-new episode. In the meantime, Below Deck Mediterranean’s Captain Sandy Yawn will be serving as Relief Captain.
"Captain Sandy really did me a solid by stepping in,” Captain Lee said in a confessional. “She inherits somebody else’s crew, and it’s not easy.”
Being a captain might not be easy, but making the decision to help her fellow yachtie was. “Captain Lee and I go way back, so when I heard about Captain Lee’s situation, I felt terrible,” Captain Sandy told the Below Deck cameras. “Who wants to leave because you can’t physically do it? My hope is that Captain Lee feels supported. I’m here to take care of his boat and his crew until he comes back.”
And rest assured, he returns before the end of the charter season. “I can’t tell you how hard this is,” Captain Lee explained. “It’s just like an emptiness that I’ve never known. I will put in the work. I will deal with the pain. I am going to come back and finish what I started.”
In the meantime, Fraser Olender, Ross McHarg, Hayley De Sola Pinto, Alissa Humber, Camille Lamb, Luis Antonio “Tony” Duarte, Rachel Hargrove, Katie Glaser, and Ben Willoughby will report to the Below Deck Med captain.
The crew greeted her with open arms, but naturally, they were all upset to see Captain Lee temporarily go. Chief stew Fraser even teared up while giving some of his fellow yachties a pep talk. “Just because Captain Lee’s going for a brief moment, he’s gonna be back,” Fraser said. “Everything you do, I want you to think of him. Every little f--king fight you have between each other, every f--king thing you say to each other, think about really how important that is.”
Watch Below Deck on Bravo Mondays at 8/7c and the next day on Peacock. Catch up on the Bravo app.
