When last we left Below Deck Sailing Yacht, the Parsifal III was dragging anchor and threatening to collide with another nearby boat. The crew was scrambling to put fenders in place, while the new guests were wondering if their dream vacation was about to end in a crash.
Captain Glenn Shephard managed to turn the boat and slide out of danger just in time. “That was f*cking close,” Chief Engineer Colin MacRae shuddered. “My heart!”
“This is the first time I’ve ever gotten too close for comfort,” Glenn said. “P3 is gonna live to sink another day. Move on to the next crisis.”
Chef Ileisha creates sushi art
Once the crisis was averted, Chef Ileisha Dell continued creating a beautiful sushi lunch for the guests.
“Making sushi is an art form,” Ileisha told us. “I wanted to make something super impressive, so I’m making mosaic sushi. You’ve got to make every sushi roll [at] a different angle. It’s like a million different pieces of glass put together intricately. I think that’s why I’m a chef because I love creating beautiful pieces.”
And the finished product is truly amazingly beautiful. I gasped when I saw it and wish I had a picture to share here. It really did look like a mosaic. Too beautiful to eat.
Chief Stew Daisy Kelliher asked First Mate Gary King if he would be the “naked sushi lady” for the next day when the guests are having their seafood feast. “They’re not allowed to eat the ‘little worm’ that comes from the middle, though,” Gary warned.
“Ewwww!” Daisy squealed. “A snakey eel that will sneak up on you.” Even more horrifying is the fact that Gary refers to his manhood as a “little worm.” That’s just sad, Gary.
Colin’s still a little jealous of Daisy and Gary
Observing the banter between Gary and Daisy, Colin’s insecurities once again came to light. “Gary’s given me his blessings to pursue something with Daisy,” Colin interviewed. “Yet he’s still being flirty and pursuing her in a way.” That’s just Gary, Colin. He’s always quick with a quip.
“Maybe I’m overthinking it a little bit,” he continued, “but I feel like it means something different now.”
Later, when Daisy was taking a break in her cabin, she got a text message from her sister Bonnie. “I have a layover in Sardinia in two days, are you free?”
“OMG, yes!” Daisy wrote back. “That’s our night off. You should join us!”
“I’m super excited to see my sister Bonnie,” Daisy interviewed. “I know the crew are going to love her because she’s very free-spirited, so I think the change of energy might be good for me.”
“Can’t wait to see you!” Bonnie texted back.
“Me, too!” Daisy answered. “It’s gonna be so fun!” Yay! Daisy’s sister is coming to join the crew for a night out. What fun!
“She can definitely drink like a fish,” Daisy added, “so I think she’ll fit in quite well.
Hello? Are there any service people around?
As Daisy was relaxing in her cabin and texting with her sister, both Junior Stewardesses Lucy Edmunds and Madison “Mads” Herrera were gossiping in the crew mess about the near-collision earlier. Meanwhile, one of the guests was wandering around the boat in search of more rosé, when he ran into Captain Glenn.
“Hello?” the gentleman guest asked Glenn. “Are there any service people around?”
“Yeah,” Glenn answered, heading off to find one ASAP. This is not going to go well for Lucy and Mads.
Finding the girls in the crew mess with deckhand Chase Lemacks, Glenn asked, “Who’s on right now? Are you on?”
When Mads said that both she and Lucy were on, Glenn said, “Can you get up there? Because there’s guests asking for service and there’s nobody up there.”
“I never want to have guests come and ask me for a stewardess,” Glenn interviewed. “The standards and expectations that I set for charter one, they don’t change for charter seven. We want to give the same level of service.”
“You guys shouldn’t be down here at the same time,” he told Lucy and Mads. “They shouldn’t have to come looking for you guys.”
17 minutes without service
When Daisy returned from her break, Mads filled her in. “Just so you know,” she told Daisy, “I was going back and forth to grab clean cups and put them away, and Glenn came down and was like, ‘One of you needs to be up there at all times.’ And I was literally on my way up.” Yeah, of course, you were, Mads. But in the meantime, you were having a little chat with Lucy and Chase about how “challenges make you stronger.”
“It’s physically impossible to have a stew permanently there,” Daisy told her. “It’s actually completely unreasonable.” I think Glenn would heartily disagree with that opinion, Daisy.
During dinner service, Daisy was again in the galley when the captain came in and asked, “Is someone up there with [the guests]?”
When Daisy asked why, he reiterated to make sure someone was “checking on them.”
“I literally was there like five minutes ago,” Daisy answered, which was not true because the subtitle on the screen literally said “17 minutes without service,” and the guests were currently pouring their own wine.
“Just keep somebody up there,” Glenn insisted. “Just in case, because they already had to come [looking for someone] once today.”
When Daisy returned to the guests, she caught them in the act of pouring wine. “Sorry, Daisy,” they apologized. “She was just, like, taking over for a second.”
“Oops,” Daisy said in an interview. “That’s a f*ck-up.”
Vive La France
The next morning, Glenn was on the bridge when he got a text from the Yacht Agent. “We were able to book you a spot at the marina in Bonifacio [France] this evening until 11:00 pm.” That’s great news. Since the guests had requested a French dinner, Glenn was hoping he could actually take them to France since they were so close already.
Glenn was excited to surprise the guests with his news. “Good morning,” he greeted them, as they were sitting down for breakfast. “I just wanted to chat with you guys about the plan for today. Tonight we’re doing this Vive La France dinner, right? So I was thinking, why not do the French-themed dinner on a dock in France?”
They were all excited at this news. “That would be amazing!”
“So we’ll do a bit of sailing,” Glenn continued, “and we’ll go inside a town called Bonifacio … before dinner.”
“From where we are now to Bonifacio, Corsica, is less than two hours,” Glenn interviewed. “I’m trying to seize the moment and give these guys something really special. Going to one of the coolest ports in all of France, I think it’s going to be the icing on the cake.”
As the guests were waiting for breakfast to be served, they realized it was really hot on the deck where they were sitting. They wondered if they might want to move out of the sun or maybe up to the top deck, where there was at least a breeze.
“Do you guys mind if we move upstairs?” the gentleman guest asked Daisy and Mads. “There’s like a breeze up there? Back here, it’s so hot.”
“Okay, sure,” Daisy agreed. “Don’t worry, we’ll move it.” Not wanting to cause any trouble, the guest was saying they could move their own table settings, but Daisy assured him they’d take care of it. Nevertheless, the guests insisted on carrying their own plates and utensils upstairs.
Noticing what was going on with the guests, Glenn muttered, “That’s not cool. I don’t like that.”
“So they went up there just to catch some breeze?” he asked Daisy. “I wish we’d known. I would have asked the boys to put the awning up. Guests should never have to move plates on their own.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t to know how hot it was going to be,” Daisy told Glenn.
“I don’t know what’s going on with Daisy,” Glenn told production. “But the guests come on board, they have an expectation of quality service. Now is not the time to be dragging your asses. You know, even star athletes, star players, they still practice. They’re still always improving. That’s what I’m after. That’s my goal.”
Colin and Daisy catch up
Daisy paid Colin a smoochy visit in the control room. “How’s your day going?” he asked.
“Pretty sh*tty to be honest,” she admitted. “It’s more mental exhaustion.”
“Try not to let it get to you,” Colin told her.
“My sister will be here for the night out,” Daisy told Colin.
“Oh, really?” Colin asked. “I’m excited to meet her.”
Sails up
“All crew, all crew,” Captain Glenn radioed. “Let’s get ready to sail.” Daisy told her crew to prepare the boat for a hard port (left) heel.
Chase asked Gary if he could pull the anchor, and Gary said sure. But when Chase started preparing to raise the anchor, Gary began micro-managing him, as Gary does.
“I think I’m finally figuring Gary out,” Chase admitted in an interview. “I mean, it pisses me the f*ck off when he’s on my case about dumb sh*t. But no matter what he says to me, I’ll put a smile on my face and do the work. I’d love to tell him off, but I’m just not going to.” Not if you like your job, I wouldn’t suggest it, Chase.
As they raised the sails, the guests were thrilled, “Who needs a rollercoaster?” one of them asked. But they wondered what it was like downstairs. Things were flying around down below, drawers were sliding out and stuff was falling off the shelves. Not so much fun below deck. And poor Ileisha was still trying to prepare an elegant seafood dinner in a galley that was tilted at a 45° angle.
Bonifacio, Corsica
When they neared Bonifacio, deckhand Alex Propson jumped into the tender to follow the boat into port. Everyone else prepared to handle fenders.
“Stakes are pretty high docking in Bonifacio,” Glenn told us, “because it’s a very long, narrow port. I’ve got little boats three meters off my starboard side, four meters off my port side and there’s no room to turn a boat the size of Parsifal. So we have to reverse the whole way in. If you can dock the boat in Bonifacio, everywhere else is kind of a breeze.”
The town itself was beautiful. Old stone buildings towered over the port. Several of the female guests were overcome with emotion at the sheer magnificence of the view. Even Ileisha came out of the galley for a peek. Meanwhile, as they passed a particularly elegant yacht at close proximity, the gentleman guest, whose name I think was Tim, asked someone standing on the deck of the other boat, “Do you have any Gray Poupon?” Tim’s a funny guy. He made me chuckle.
It was a tight squeeze, but Captain Glenn pulled off the docking like the professional he is. He drew quite a crowd of spectators on the dock while he did it, too. They may have applauded his masterful feat.
A walk in Bonifacio
When docking was complete and all the lines secure, the guests left the boat for a walk around town, accompanied by Gary and Daisy. Gary admitted to one of the guests that he’d been to Bonifacio several times.
While the guests were enjoying the shops, Gary bought himself a shirt. “What did you buy?” Daisy asked him. “Where’s my present?”
“You’ve got a boyfriend now, Daisy,” Gary told her. “I can’t be buying you stuff.”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she argued.
“Yeah, I think you do,” Gary insisted. “And I’m a little bit jealous.”
“You make things very awkward and complicated,” Daisy told Gary.
But then the guests were ready to return to the boat. “Welcome back,” Glenn greeted them.
“We missed you,” said one of the ladies.
Gary King, human sushi platter
A freshly showered Gary lay on a table covered in sushi, as part of the guests’ seafood dinner, while a shirtless Colin strummed his guitar nearby.
“I’ve had sex with Gary and I still wouldn’t eat sushi off of Gary,” Mads said. “That’s so just unsanitary.”
Even though the guests loved it, Alex asked Glenn, “You hungry for sushi now?”
“No, thank you,” Glenn told him. “Never again in my life.”
At the table, guest Tim asked for some “non-Gary-flavored wasabi.”
Exactly at 11:00 pm, Glenn prepared to maneuver out of the port, going forward this time rather than backing in. But that didn’t mean it would be easy.
“Maneuvering through this port in the dark is more challenging than doing it in the daylight,” Glenn said. “There’s a lot of reef, a lot of underwater rocks, so you have to be very confident in your chart work and your navigation.”
Once they were far enough outside the port, Glenn found a suitable place to drop the anchor for the night, and everyone settled in. Even the guests retired early.
In the boys’ cabin, Gary asked Colin, “Do you reckon you and Daisy are going to hook up again tomorrow?”
“Didn’t you hear?” Colin responded. “Daisy’s sister is coming tomorrow. Why don’t you go for Bonnie?” And they both had a good laugh at that idea.
Last day of Charter 7
As the last day of the charter dawned and Glenn began motoring back to the dock, Daisy asked for a moment. “Glenn, can I talk to you for a second? So my sister is in town, and I was wondering if it was okay if she came on our crew night out and stayed on the boat?”
“We’ll make it work,” he generously told her. “I’d love to meet her.”
“She’s a good time,” Daisy admitted. “Thanks, Glenn.”
As the guests enjoyed the sumptuous breakfast Ileisha had prepared for them, of course, they were all bemoaning the fact that it was their last day. Nobody ever wants to leave the Parsifal — except for the crew, of course.
Daisy was excited. “My sister’s gonna come this afternoon after drop off.”
An injury on board
As the boat approached the dock, guest Tim decided to go out on the deck and watch. Not realizing that the glass door was closed, he did a pretty hard headbutt with the slider. “I did it! Oh, my gosh,” he exclaimed.
“Oh, yeah,” Gary observed from outside. “Tim walked into the door. Yeah, he did.”
At first, his friends laughed at his mistake, but when they realized he was hurt and bleeding, everyone quickly turned serious. “Are you okay?” Gary asked, concerned.
Gary radioed, “Girls, can we get some ice, please? Tim just walked into the door.” But Daisy, Ileisha and Mads were gossiping in the galley and didn’t hear the distress call. “Where the f*ck is Daisy and the interior right now? This is absolutely absurd.” Meanwhile, poor Tim continued to bleed. Captain is not going to be happy about this.
At last, the boat was tied up to the dock and the engines shut down. Glenn immediately went to check on the injured guest. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Could I get maybe one of the girls to give me some ice?” Tim asked Glenn.
Glenn was furious. “It’s been 15 minutes since Gary made the call for the girls to tend to Tim,” he said. “Why the hell haven’t they taken care of him yet? This is unacceptable.”
Finding the interior crew in the galley, Glenn told Daisy, “Did you guys hear he smacked his head? Can you get him some ice?”
“Who did?” Daisy asked.
“Tim,” Glenn told her. “Gary called it out about 15 minutes ago when we were docking.”
“If there was a serious injury up on deck with the guests, I would presume somebody would come find me on this relatively small boat,” Daisy told production. Um, they were kind of busy docking the boat, Daisy. That’s why you’re supposed to have your radio with you at all times. Sorry, not on your side this time.
Finally handing Tim his bag of ice, Daisy asked him, “Did it stun you, though? Are you seeing stars or anything?”
“I did, but now I’m good,” he told her. “I’ll be fine.”
Rather inappropriately, Daisy was laughing and joking, “When they’re docking, I tend to zone out.” Still chuckling, as the poor man pressed the bag of ice to his injured head. Not cool.
“Does it hurt?” one of the other guests asked Tim.
“My ego more,” Tim said. Poor Tim. I felt sorry for him. What a way to end his fabulous vacation.
“Well, I have to say we had the most amazing time last night, going to Bonifacio,” the primary told the crew. “Thank you so much for making that happen. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And I have to say we did appreciate the ‘tuna on Gary.’ So with that …” and she handed that captain the tip envelope.
“Thank you, that’s very kind of you,” Glenn told her. “Have a safe trip home.”
A tense tip meeting
As the guests walked away down the dock, Glenn radioed, “Can I get everybody changed into their off-charter uniform and into the salon for a tip meeting now, please?” Oh, that doesn’t sound good. I think Glenn is pissed.
When Glenn arrived, he started things right off. “We’re nearing the end of the season,” he began. “I know everyone’s tired and burnt out, but that is not a good reason to drop the ball. Please keep your radios on. Make sure that you have a radio working. If you don’t, come and see me. It’s a safety issue. We need to be able to communicate at all times on the boat. Apparently, I can’t stress that enough.”
“Just so you know,” Daisy said, “sometimes we can’t all hear the radios. They don’t pass through, it [doesn’t] come through all.”
“That’s an excuse,” Glenn countered.
“I don’t even want to hear about the walkies,” the captain told production. “It doesn’t matter, this is so bad. You f*cked up. Own it.” Suddenly Glenn’s channeling Lisa Rinna.
“Tim cut himself,” he told Daisy. “He was bleeding from his head for 15 minutes, and that’s unacceptable.” I’m 100% on Glenn’s side on this. I love you, Daisy, but he’s right. These people pay a sh*t-ton of money for these charters. They deserve to have someone bring them a bag of ice when they’re injured. At the very least. You’ve got no excuse, Daisy.
Next week, Daisy’s sister arrives. How much do you want to bet she’ll hook up with Gary? Ewwww. That’s kind of nasty.
TELL US – DO YOU THINK DAISY NEEDS TO TAKE HER JOB MORE SERIOUSLY? ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO MEETING DAISY’S SISTER BONNIE?
