Well, it looks like there’s a little more wiggle room down in the crew quarters of the St. David. That’s because this week’s episode of Below Deck (which you can catch up on with a Peacock subscription) saw the shocking early departure of not one but two onboard staffers. However, what’s even more surprising is that this isn’t the first time that’s happened in Bravo’s yacht-focused reality franchise.
After that widely despised eighth season of Below Deck Mediterranean, it looks like the O.G. Below Deck decided to fire up the engines where the drama’s concerned for Season 11, with both bosun Jared Woodin and stew Cat Baugh ending their charter seasons earlier. However, only one of those early exits was voluntary.
Joining a long line of fired Below Deck crew—including Captain Sandy’s number one hater Hannah Ferrier, accidental mustard-gas concocter Elizabeth Frankini and the exhaustingly argumentative Lexi Wilson, among many others—Jared Woodin was fired by Captain Kerry Titheradge due to bad behavior in the March 18th episode on the 2024 TV schedule, titled “Cat’s Out of the Bag.” Jared’s dismissal came after he drunkenly barged into a crew cabin and berated deckhand Kyle Stillie for spilling loose tobacco near the boat’s hot tub.
During the episode, Captain Kerry said this about Jared’s inappropriate, over-the-top reaction and poor treatment of his crewmate:
This is the second time you’ve gone on the piss and you’ve had bad behavior. You’re in a leadership role. You can’t be acting like that. You gotta be above the fray. The way that you’re treating these guys is not acceptable, and we’ve had discussions, and I’ve tried to guide you, I’ve shown you compassion. But, you’ve got shit going on, mate. You’re your own worst enemy right now. You need to depart the vessel.
The Aussie captain was sympathetic, however, to the mental struggles Jared was clearly going through, and he told him that remaining on the boat would be “a disservice” to his mental health.
The topic of having a “good headspace” while working onboard also came up for Cat Baugh, whose own unexpected departure came after the stewardess received a distressing call from a friend back home in America. Deciding to put her own mental health first and go be there for her friend, Baugh put in her resignation with chief stew Fraser Olender and Captain Kerry, both of whom were supportive of her decision. Baugh said of her exit:
I wish I could have stayed. But, the thing is, there’s no way I could have. This is too much. I need to be with the people [who] need me, and also, on this boat, I’m at a breaking point. I need to protect my mental health. It’s like my support system is at home, not here.
Losing two crew members in one episode is surprising, sure, but not unprecedented. On Below Deck Down Under, the Aussie spin-off of the reality series, bosun Luke Jones was fired by Captain Jason Chambers for drunken misconduct after trying to get in a stew’s bed naked while she was inebriated and unconscious. Shortly after, stew Laura Bileskalne’s contract was also terminated for making repeating unwanted advances on a male deckhand. Below Deck veteran Lee Rosbach praised Chambers’s “superb” handling of the crew misconduct.
So, as you can see, while this situation was shocking to many, it’s by no means the first time it’s happened.
Despite the two exits, there’s still plenty more Below Deck to go, so tune in to Season 11 on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo to see if there will be any more crew shake-ups aboard the St. David.
Source Agencies
