I couldn’t have been the only person who watched the first half of the Below Deck Season 7 reunion last week wondering what has happened to the Captain Lee Rosbach we used to know and love.
And tonight promises to be just as bad. I mean, dude has always been biased towards Chief Stew Kate Chastain. But this is really getting ridiculous.
Have you ever seen such a completely obvious double standard? There is one set of rules for Kate and an entirely different set for everybody else.
It’s not okay for Kevin to do the same thing Kate did
Did the captain actually yell at Chef Kevin Dobson for repeating what Stew Courtney Skippon told THEM in the kitchen about Lead Deckhand Brian de Saint Pern dumping her via text?
I’m no Kevin fan but c’mon, she told Kate in front of Kevin — she didn’t indicate it was a secret or that it was for Kate’s ears only.
I thought it was crappy of Kevin to take such glee in sharing the gossip — because that’s exactly what he did — I pointed out in my last blog that he was actually grinning as he hugged a crying Courtney who was boohooing over Brian at one point.
That’s not crossing into Kate’s lane like he did with the whole boys-only serving steak while girls serve sauce thing — it’s just stirring the pot like a 13-year-old girl.
He was mean to do it but it was just gossipy drama. It had nothing to do with the running of the boat, and Capt. Lee going off on Kevin like that was unexpected and, quite frankly, ridiculous.
There were plenty of times during the season that Capt. Lee could have told Kevin to stop stepping on the chief stew’s toes, but that wasn’t one of them. Not for just gossiping.
You wanna talk about crossing into somebody else’s lane, how about Kate telling Rhylee what she heard Ashton saying about her fishing trip to Capt. Lee up on the bridge?
But it’s okay for Kate to do what Kevin did
She literally overheard another department head telling the captain of the yacht about a problem that he’d had with something the guests might well end up complaining about.
Kate — who wasn’t on the fishing trip — decided that Ashton was wrong and Rhylee was blameless and told Rhylee what her boss had said about her.
That’s the freaking definition of getting in somebody else’s lane. And I haven’t heard Captain Lee say anything about that. Hmmm. I hope it comes up tonight.
In the real world, that lack of professionalism would get you fired. Period.
Ashton’s only mistake in that scenario was telling the captain about Rhylee in front of Kate, but it actually showed that at that point in the charter season, the bosun had not yet lost all respect for the chief stew and assumed she had the professionalism to know what not to do.
Bad assumption.
Speaking of Ashton, he was super-quiet on the first part of the reunion and I kinda loved that. Unlike Rhylee who won’t shut up and has something to say about everything that isn’t her business.
Truth: I was so impressed when Ashton went and passed out in a cabana instead of continuing to drink and getting caught up in the nonsense that went down the last night of charter season.
Has anybody else noticed that after his one big explosion at Kate — which he apologized for more than once — Ashton did a 180 degree turn in terms of professionalism, demeanor, and comportment?
It doesn’t erase what happened, of course, but he is the only crew member this season that I see trying to change his wicked ways mid-charter.
But back to Capt. Lee and his double standards. What about that nonsense with him saying that Kate shouldn’t have to train any of the interior crew?
Is he kidding? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?
I don’t care what career field you’re in, there’s some training involved when you get new hires, “green” employees, or whatever you want to call them.
Valor today, Fort Lauderdale tomorrow?! The stews are squabbling on the #BelowDeck Reunion TONIGHT! pic.twitter.com/GauVtpUo5x
— Bravo (@BravoTV) February 10, 2020
Never in real life would somebody expect you to know exactly what you’re doing right away at your first job in any industry, and probably not in your second or third, either.
Heck, when I became a vice president at a publicly-traded company, I went into headquarters for a month when I first started working for them so I could shadow my colleagues and get a handle on what was going on.
So Capt. Lee said that Kate wasn’t supposed to have to train somebody like Simone but he expected Ashton to be able to safely run a boat deck with deck crew who didn’t even know how to tie sailor’s knots? Hmmm. #DoubleStandard
Obviously, Kate can do no wrong in Capt. Lee’s eyes. We knew that. But it’s also a little weird to me because I thought the captain had finally caught on when he saw the footage of his chief stew sadistically torturing two different stews last season.
Part 2 of the Below Deck Season 7 reunion is tonight and we’ll find out what pissed off Capt. Lee enough to make him walk off the stage.
Maybe somebody had the nerve to call him out on his double standard.