The much-anticipated season 7 of Below Deck has finally arrived, and fans are wondering what’s going to happen aboard the mega-yacht this time around. For those unfamiliar with the docu-series, Below Deck is a reality TV series that follows the lives of the crewmembers on a charter boat. It’s a simple idea that makes for incredibly entertaining television. After all, what could go wrong in a confined space in the middle of the ocean? It turns out that personal lives and professional lives clash often in a yacht setting, and we’ve had six seasons worth of Below Deck so far. With season 7, it looks like we’re getting much more of the same and a few things that are different.
The Captain and His Crew
One of the things that constantly change on this show is the crew. The chartering industry is a transient industry. Most charter boats will see crewmembers that are there in passing–either to get experience or just to get paid. Being on a boat is a great way to travel and see other parts of the world for a job, but it can also be tedious at the same time. So naturally, we’ve seen changes with the cast of Below Deckover the course of the last several years. For season 7, we’re going to see a few names come back from the previous season, and we’re also going to see a lot of new names.
The only name that’s been constant on every season of the show is the charter’s captain, Lee Rosbach. Rosbach has served as captain of Honor, the mega-yacht’s name for the sake of the show). Captain Lee has been yachting for over 20 years now, and there’s a reason why he remains to be the captain for the show even after so many years. The captain is firm when he needs to be, but he’s also very likable. Truly, the show wouldn’t be the same without him.
Alongside Captain Lee, Chief Stewardess Kate Chastain is also coming back. Chastain started in season 2 after replacing Adrienne Gang from season 1. Since her arrival, the show has had a really dramatic dynamic. She’s definitely not the easiest person to work with, but she’s quite adept at her job. She has a big responsibility on the charter boat, and she makes sure that everyone knows–including the audience. Chief Stewardess Chastain is starting off this season with even more drama than ever, and it seems that she’s already threatened to quit the show. That’s saying a lot for season 7 given that we’ve only seen the first episode so far. This might point to signs that Chastain might be heading for land soon. There’s a possibility that we might see a different chief stewardess by the end of this season.
Apart from crewmember Ashton Pienaar, the entire crew is different this season. This means that the show will have a totally different dynamic with all the new and different personalities coming together for the first time. Pienaar worked as deckhand last season, but he will serve as bosun for season 7, which means he will be in charge of equipment and most of crew responsibilities. Simone Mashile and Courtney Skippon will serve as 2nd and 3rd stewardesses respectively. Mashile seems to have an impressive work ethic, but Skippon’s already mentioned that she’s only working on the charter boat in order to pay off her student loans. Skippon comes from a life of privilege, so we can only expect a lot of tension to come from her.
We’re getting a new chef this season, Kevin Dobson, who already got sick during the first episode of the show. Dobson is a talented young man, who probably looks too good to be a real chef. However, he is good at what he does and we can expect some deliciousness to come from him this season. Brian de Saint Pern will serve as Lead Deckhand this season. Tanner Sterback and Abbi Murphy are both deckhands for Below Deckseason 7. Murphy is probably the greenest deckhand on board, and she’s quite an interesting character as well. Murphy is a 24-year old Boston native, who dropped her full scholarship to law school in order to set sail. She’s either going to regret her decision this season on the show, or she might find that she made the best decision of her life–we’ll all find out soon enough.
There are a lot of strong personalities this season, and it seems that everyone on the show wants to do it their own way. We know for a fact that this is not going to fly with Captain Lee, but he doesn’t know everything that goes on below deck.
The Sites
For this season of Below Deck, we can expect to see destinations that are different from previous seasons. It seems that we’re going to see more remote Asian destinations this time around. We already saw the crew as they spent some time in Thailand, and we’re likely to see other fascinating destinations close to or around China and South Korea. Every single episode of this season will feature a fresh group of passengers, and majority of these passengers are wealthy people looking to have a good time while on water. Partying is better while boating, and the crew will have to work together in order to produce successful events. Season 7 will be an interesting one–both because of the new crew and also because of the destinations. It’s definitely something worth tuning into each week. There’s already a lot of tension between Chef Kevin and Chief Stewardess Kate, and some of the crewmembers are already being picky with the jobs they’re doing. It’s going to be one heck of a ride for both crewmembers and viewers at home, and we’re glad that the season still has a ways to go.
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