Kate Chastain Details What Made Her Want to "Quit" Below Deck This Season

If the trailer for this season of Below Deck is any indication (clip above), we're definitely going to see a different side of Kate Chastain. One heated moment in particular caught our eye when she and Ashton Pienaar appear to get into it as the bosun tells the chief stew, "Everybody feels that way about you, Kate!"

Kate then seemingly hands in her epaulets in the clip. "OK, great. Go find another chief stew. I quit," she says before walking down the dock away from the boat.

The chief stew has experienced plenty of drama in her six seasons of Below Deck, so what was it about Season 7 that finally sent her over the edge? Luckily, The Daily Dish was able to get the scoop from Kate herself during an interview along with Captain Lee Rosbach in New York City on October 14.

"This season there's more drama than most seasons, I think. I didn't realize it until looking back and saying, 'Oh my gosh, that happened and that happened,'" Kate explained. "And it just got to a point where I felt like the people I was working with were too disrespectful and too much, and I wanted to be out of that situation."

Captain Lee told The Daily Dish that he had no idea any of this was going on during the charter season. "I just wanted to know where my coffee was," the Below Deck boss recalled. "That's the first I heard about it when my coffee didn't show up in the morning. I didn't know. So I didn't really have a thought. They said, 'Kate's not here.' I said, 'No, forget about that. That's not right.'"

When Captain Lee finally got to see a little bit of what caused Kate to leave the Valor in the Season 7 trailer, he couldn't believe his eyes. "Because that's so out of character for Kate, I'm wondering who pushed that button?" he said. "And wherever that button is, I want to stay the hell away from it, because I was surprised."

Kate acknowledged just how unprecedented her actions were this season. "Yeah, I've never jumped ship in six seasons, and there have been plenty of situations where it would have been great," she told The Daily Dish. "This [season] was extra dramatic."

We'll have to wait and see how this all plays out this season of Below Deck. But Captain Lee and Kate filled us in on what the yachting protocol is if a chief stew exits the charter season early, which, along with captain, is the only position we've never seen a crew member depart in all these seasons of the series. "Depends on why she left and if it was justifiable," Captain Lee said. "If it came down to where the other crew members were just making life so miserable because they were capable of doing that, there'd be hell to pay. She wouldn't be the only one gone."

As with any crew member's departure, the team just has to band together to keep things afloat for the remainder of the charter season, according to Kate. "It happens sometimes, though, that a crew member, and they're all important, has to leave for an injury or a family emergency in the middle of a charter," she said. "But hopefully the crew can make it until you find a replacement. You just have to, everybody, work a little harder, help out."

Catch up on this season of Below Deck here. Check out a sneak peek of how the Valor crew will handle their next challenge in an all-new episode Monday at 9/8c, below.

This Below Deck Charter Guest is Drunk Upon Arrival