Twenty complaints in 24 hours, a lost jet ski harness, and a bosun officially on thin ice aboard Azul V.
RECAP — SPOILER WARNING: This is a full-spoiler recap of Below Deck Season 13, Episode 3, which aired Monday, October 26 on Bravo. Stop here if you have not watched yet.
This Below Deck recap starts with a warning sign nobody could miss: a preference sheet so long that chief stew Fraser Olender was side-eyeing it before the guests boarded. Per Bravo’s coverage of the October 26 episode, Fraser called it “very lengthy,” while new chef Moe Vilomar — who started prepping the night before — admitted a three-page preference sheet is “never good.” Reader, he was right.
The second charter group of the season, boarding in Thailand aboard M/Y Azul V, wasted no time. According to Bravo, the complaints began as the yacht pulled away, with a guest calling the champagne “not drinkable” and primary guest Carolyn advising it needed an ice bucket — with salt in it. Then came anchovies and canned fish that were not on the sheet, and a guest asking for a walkie-talkie because nobody was paying attention to them. Fraser, keeping a running tally, told producers: “This is a nightmare.”
Dinner did not calm anyone down. Per Bravo, Robby questioned the wine glasses, asked for lime then lemon for his Thai crab salad, wanted finishing salt, and later explained exactly how his red wine should be chilled — a little, but not ice cold. Another guest questioned the stabilizers. Fraser told Captain Kerry Titheradge he had never seen complaints like that at a dinner table. Reality Tea agreed: the guests loved Fraser’s table, and not much else, though Moe’s king fish and dessert landed.
Then came the 1 a.m. turndown tangle. Per Bravo and Reality Tea, Melani had asked for red wine in her cabin for turndown, but stew Rosa Simms-Preston put it in Carolyn’s cabin instead. Melani had also asked Rainbeau de Roos for nuts and chips, and Rainbeau forgot them. Around 1:15 a.m., Melani went looking for both and got an apology from Rosa — but the next morning she took the complaint to Fraser, saying she did not like being talked to like she was the problem. Fraser backed his stew: per Primetimer, he told Rosa she had done nothing wrong, even as Rosa admitted the wine mix-up and called the exchange with Melani “horrendous.”
While the interior drowned in requests, the deck team handed Captain Kerry a problem of its own. Per Bravo, deckhand Jessenia Stidger accidentally dropped a jet ski harness into the ocean — the harness used to lift the jet ski back on board — and nobody marked where it fell. Kerry was furious: when something goes in the water, you drop a weight and a float, because the boat keeps swinging. Bosun Alex Wright owned that his team’s mess-up was his responsibility, but Kerry told producers he could not keep holding Alex’s hand, warned changes were coming, and called Alex “in the weeds.”
The boatmances moved fast too. Reality Tea recapped that Matt and Kaylee made things exclusive, with Matt saying in confessional that he no longer wanted to be a mess-around guy — while also admitting Kaylee was the only woman on board he was into. Rainbeau’s newly adopted English accent became its own running bit, one Fraser was very much not enjoying.
No one was fired in this episode, but the firing watch is real. Bravo’s Episode 4 preview has Alex himself predicting he could get sacked, and lead deckhand Matthew Fitzpatrick-Buck telling Kerry he has been a bosun for two and a half years and can step up if needed. That is not a subtle edit — that is the show lining up a replacement in plain sight.
The 247 Take — Twenty complaints would sink a weaker crew’s tip and morale, but the real story here is Alex: three episodes in, Kerry is already shopping for a Plan B, and Matt is happily volunteering to be it.
Sources: Reality Tea, Bravo — guests complain about the crew, Bravo — Captain Kerry calls out Alex Wright, Primetimer
