When Captain Sandy Yawn’s deck crew was left shorthanded in the wake of Luke Brumer’s abrupt resignation on Below Deck Mediterranean Season 11, she had to get creative. Unable to find an immediate replacement, Sandy tapped chief stew Aesha Scott to temporarily fill in as a deckhand.
First, Captain Sandy floated her idea by bosun Nathan Gallagher, who said he was fully on board with the plan. She could do some anchor watches,” Sandy told him during Episode 9 of Below Deck Med, noting that Aesha’s “worked on deck before.” Nathan, meanwhile, pointed out that Aesha had “already dropped the anchor,” too.
“If Aesha thinks she can handle checking in with the interior crew while working on deck, I don’t really think we have another choice,” Captain Sandy remarked in a confessional. “The safety of this boat and the guests and the crew need to be priority over everything else.”
How Aesha Scott reacted to Captain Sandy Yawn appointing her to the deck crew on Below Deck Med
When Nathan filled in Aesha about Sandy’s shocking staffing solution, she was game. “That just means that they’re gonna be down inside,” Aesha reminded him, referring to her interior team, which includes Kayley Smith, Gen Lillie, and Kat Johnston.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Aesha remarked in a producer interview. “I do have my certs, but I don’t know how good I’m gonna be. At this point, there really isn’t a better alternative. We’re gonna have to rally together to make this work.”
Soon afterward, Captain Sandy sat down with Aesha and explained that she couldn’t “think of any other way to do this.” The chief stew, meanwhile, predicted that she would be “absolutely fine,” before going on to highlight the fact that the temporary change would also give her second stew, Kayley, a chance to shine in a larger leadership role.
Once Aesha eventually had the chance to get her sea legs as a deckhand later on, Joe Bradley asked how she was feeling about the new arrangement. “Mentally, it’s so much simpler for me, ’cause I’m just being told what to do” Aesha replied.
What to Know About Below Deck Mediterranean Season 11
Season 11 of Below Deck Mediterranean is officially underway and already making waves! New episodes air Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo and stream next day on Peacock.
Rocking the boat under Captain Sandy Yawn this season are chief stew Aesha Scott, bosun Nathan Gallagher, chef Joy Lefaucheur, stews Gen Lillie, Kayley Smith, and Kat Johnston; and deckhands Joe Bradley, Cooper Dawson, and Luke Brumer. Read each crew member’s bio. here.
As for what’s to come aboard the sleek new M/Y Akira One, Below Deck Med fans can expect to see clashes between former friends Nathan and Joe, Aesha balancing her youngest stew team yet with wedding planning, and appearances from Gael Cameron, Hannah Ferrier, and more.
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Details on Aesha Scott’s previous deckhand experience
As Captain Sandy had mentioned, Aesha was no stranger to the duties required on deck. “I started as a deckhand,” Aesha explained in a confessional, recounting the beginning of her decade-long yachting career. “I enjoyed the deck work. Then, I left because my captain made my life a living hell.”
She recalled, “I would just finish washing the whole boat, and he would literally, like, walk out with a plank of wood and a saw and start sawing wood, so the wood dust would go all over the aft deck. And I was like, ‘F–k you. F–k this boat. I’m leaving.'”
“So, I got another job in the interior,” Aesha concluded. “And the rest is history.”
Captain Sandy loses another deck crew member after Luke Brumer’s exit
Even with Aesha helping to pick up some of the slack, Nathan’s team still struggled to find their footing at the beginning of Charter 5. The bosun, it turned out, had been distracted by some family issues with Gael Cameron and their son, Kayden, who was only a couple of months old, at the time.
“I know we just shuffled the team, but they’re not down a deckhand,” Captain Sandy told a producer. “I didn’t pull Aesha from the interior for the deck team to be a s–t show.”
In the interim, Nathan injured his back, and Sandy insisted that he undergo radiological testing on land. By the end of the Aug. 3 episode, he called her with the bad news. “The doctor says that I have a bruised disc,” Nathan said. “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
In a confessional, Captain Sandy declared, “The deck crew are crumbling. We can’t have two people down for the rest of the season. We still have charters on the books. What are we gonna do if Nathan has to leave the boat?”
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As Captain Sandy sorts through her new staffing dilemma, take a sneak peek at what’s still ahead in the Below Deck Med Season 11 midseason trailer.
