Below Deck charter guest Charley Walters is speaking out about making drinks and missing Kate Chastain as his third appearance on the Bravo show plays out onscreen.
Charley and friends were the first charter group to kick off Season 8, which was also the first season without Kate as chief stew in six years. Viewers watched as their vacation on the My Seanna luxury yacht got off to a somewhat bumpy start.
The rough voyage began with Charley learning that Kate was not the chief stew. Then, new chief stew Francesca Rubi and her interior crew struggled to get it together.
The demanding charter guests quickly realized that stews Izzy Wouters, Elizabeth Frankini, and Francesca needed some help, so Charley jumped in.
Not the same without Kate
The Season 8 premiere had two shocking twists. However, no one was more stunned that Kate was gone than Charley.
Twitter was abuzz with comments regarding Kate not being on the show throughout the premiere. Charley got the ball rolling by promoting his latest stint on the show. He mentioned Kate and how he missed her, but he also praised Francesca.
One user was quick to express how much Kate was missed on the show. Charley let the user know that he felt the exact same while filming. Kate added extra small touches to Charley’s trip that made them extra special.
Standing up for the interior crew
Despite the rocky start, Charley had nothing but praise for the interior crew. He wasn’t about to let social media bash any of the ladies.
Charley also addressed having to jump behind the bar and reassured viewers that the ladies got their act together very quickly.
Captain Lee recently reacted to Charley pitching in, calling him the “most helpful” charter guest. Charley thanked Lee for his kind words. He also made it clear that he gave Francesca and chef Rachel Hargrove some pretty challenging tasks for the first charter.
At least Charley knows his group was demanding. Bosun Eddie Lucas made it pretty clear in the premiere that the guests were friendly, yet high maintenance. The preview clip for the upcoming episode shows Eddie is not wrong, as Charley talks to Rachel about an international tasting menu.
Charley enjoyed his time on the Bravo show, even when things did not go smoothly.
Below Deck airs Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo.
Well, I was sooooo GLAD Kate Chastain was off the show. She was the worst chief stewardess EVER as the crew of Season 7 said !!!
Charley should watch all 6 seasons where Ms Chastain demonstrated her TRUE nature to get the whole picture.
I am a keen observer of the behaviour of the Below Deck crew during charters (on the yacht) under Capt Lee, in particular the behaviour of the ‘entitled’ crew females and how they cause the males to look bad.
I never liked the way Kate treats everyone with overt disdain and contempt and I also cannot believe Capt Lee defends her as if she can do NO WRONG, especially when she shows her true colours to diary cam, bad mouthing the charter guests and admitting she IS a b***h.
Capt Lee does not see Kate’s behaviour and because she has worked with him for so long, he always takes her side; i.e.:
1. her unprofessional behaviour towards her own staff (rudeness, bullying, demeaning, nasty and psychologically abusive);
There is no excuse for psychological abuse, rudeness and bullying and I despise that behaviour. I have noticed she has the knack of pissing off every other crew member on the boat, especially if someone doesn’t align with her world view. This comes out on her ‘diary cam’, which constantly demonstrates the truth of who she is; condescending, two-faced and full of negativity for her shipmates AND charter guests. Of course, in her eyes, she can do no wrong and when she is offended, it will always be someone else’s fault. The problem with this is her private, ‘diary cam’ thoughts cannot be hidden; she broadcasts them loud and clear by her behaviour towards the crew.
2. her ‘diary cam’ statements badmouthing guests (who likely have watched the show for their charter and would have spread the word to all their friends about her);
3. her unprofessional behaviour in relaying information about Rhylee to Rhylee (through some twisted notion of ‘girl code’) that she overheard on the bridge when Ashton reported to Capt Lee about Rhylee’s stuff up re: forbidden fishing.
4. her passive-aggressive behaviour towards Chef Kevin when she let food go cold because she decided to serve it ‘in her own good time’ rather than when Chef called for service; She WILL NOT be told WHEN to serve food and WILL NOT acknowledge that Chef OWNS the food service Process !
5. her ‘I got you back’ behaviour in NOT telling Chef Kevin the ‘Primary’ had left the table just before he brought in the ‘penis’ birthday cake, simply because he called her out for being a ‘dick’ about the serving dishes/containers for the beach picnic.
6. her being two-faced, saying one thing to her staff’s face and then the opposite to the producer on diary-cam; including badmouthing the guests.
Ashton had every expectation that his conversation with Capt Lee about Rhylee in the wheelhouse would be held as “confidential” since the ‘Heads’ of two departments were in the wheelhouse when he reported to the Captain. In any other organisation, no Dept. Head would ‘run off’ like a kindergarten / pre-school child to tell someone in a different Dept. what their manager had said about them to the CEO/Managing Director/General Manager.
Guests were not happy they had to return to the boat without going fishing; Rhylee is supposed to be an experienced fishing boat captain in Alaska and should have researched the fishing rules/regulations in that charter zone; she did not and Capt Lee had to be told that in case the guests mentioned it. Had Ashton NOT told Capt Lee, he would have been embarrassed if the guests had mentioned it and probably had words with Ashton.
Unfortunately, during the Reunion episodes for Season 7, Capt Lee sided with Kate (go figure) against Ashton, so clearly he has no notion of professional behaviour either, saying that because Kate had been in the wheelhouse and heard what Ashton said, she was ‘entitled’ to ‘rat’ on Ashton to Rhylee.
Further, Kate made several Chefs ‘look’ bad when she delayed getting food to table and guests complained it was cold. When she mentioned to Capt Lee that Chef Kevin was not happy about her deciding WHEN food would be served, Capt Lee sided with her. THIS tells me Capt Lee has NO IDEA about the food service process (operating across two Depts; interior and galley), even though he supposedly owned several restaurants and SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER !
The reality of the food service ‘process’ is Chef OWNS this process because they MUST have control over the time critical food temperature (as Capt Lee should know from his restaurant background) and Kate decided that she was not going to be told she was delinquent in getting the food to the table on time. So, she complained to Capt Lee and, without hearing Kevin’s side of the story, he sided with her saying Kevin should “stay in his lane”.
When Chef says the food is ready to go and rings the bell / calls for food to leave the kitchen/galley, the service staff MUST immediately take the food to the table WHILE IT IS HOT !
I don’t give a rat’s behind that Kate and Capt Lee worked on Below Deck for 6 years, THAT does NOT justify his misplaced loyalty towards her when the facts show her clearly to be in the WRONG.
Capt Lee is clearly “stuck in the 1950’s” arrogant management style of ‘Command & Control’ where the reality of business processes is not permitted to operate effectively and the performance of one Dept. can be sabotaged by some other passive-aggressive Manager/Dept. Head.
For example, if the fuel supply and the boat’s engines each behaved as separate Departments and NOT as a system, I would love to see how Capt Lee would get the boat to move if the fuel pump said to the engine, “When I’m good and ready, THEN you’ll get fuel !”.
Capt Lee also does absolutely no ‘Management By Walking Around’ (MBWA), which is the mark of a good manager and Captain who wants to know what is going on and to know that the charter guests are happy (as Capt Sandy does).
In my opinion, Chef Kevin should have approached Capt Lee to tell him how food service was being hindered by Kate and the quality of his food plating was being undermined and how it should be, then resigned and left Capt Lee and Kate to ‘stiff’ the next chef.
Anyone who knows how restaurants operate knows that the Chef CONTROLS the service staff on food service timing ! THAT’s what the Service BELL is for !!
I only hope that any chefs who intend to apply to work with Capt Lee will have watched his seasons of Below Deck.
On the other hand, Capt Sandy recognises ‘Process’ and demands that hot food to the table is not allowed to go cold !!
I have never liked the way Kate treats everyone with overt disdain and contempt and I cannot believe Capt Lee defends her as if she can do NO WRONG, especially when she shows her true colours to diary cam, bad mouthing the charter guests and admitting she IS a b***h. She has absolutely NO CUSTOMER FOCUS (care factor = ZERO) !
I am soooo very GLAD Kate is no longer used as a Chief Stew on charter yachts AND no longer inflicting her behaviour on charter guests, her staff nor other crew !! The industry is the better for it.
With HER attitude to customers, her own business won’t last long !
Kate is also a consistently mean person AND a liar; she lies by omission, only telling that part of the story that makes others look bad and her look good.
When she spoke to Captain Lee about Caroline, she LIED by omission… we saw what happened and she only told him the part that made Caroline look bad and made herself look innocent of any ‘bad’ (department head) management and behaviour.
SHE played a significant part in the way Caroline felt AND a GOOD manager would NEVER bully their subordinate, NO MATTER WHAT the issues were.
To stand outside a crew member’s berth and shout insults and to play loud (so called) music will go a long way to put her on any charter Captain’s black list.
That behaviour shows how much of a guttersnipe she is.
She is not fit to be in any management role. I don’t care WHAT she expects from a new ‘stew’. If there is/are a problem(s), there are more than 10 ways better to handle it than the way SHE handled it/them !
I am sure that when the guests watched their episode, they were appalled by her behaviour.
Then, FINALLY… in Thailand, the whole crew worked out that she IS the WORST chief stew EVErrrrrr !!! She did a CRAP job of supporting the Chef. He cooks and her job is to get out the crockery and if he wants to do a family dinner, she should just DO HER JOB !!
When she left the boat for the night, I was hoping she would just leave and not come back.
There is something very wrong with Kate when she doesn’t GET that everyone dislikes her, yet believes SHE is owed an apology.
After she returned to the boat and, on ‘diary cam’ later, she admitted that everyone on the boat dislikes her, BUT she STILL pointed the finger at ALL of them as being wrong even though she is the common denominator !