Below Deck season 9: Captain Lee’s replacement riles up Eddie Lucas as new series kicks off

Below Deck season nine started with a bang – and a whole heap of confusion – as fans were introduced to Captain Lee Rosbach’s replacement.

The Bravo favourite was briefly replaced on board superyacht My Seanna in the first episode over a mystery condition, with Captain Sean Meagher temporarily joining the cast to shake things up.

However, he has already ruffled returning First Officer Eddie Lucas’ feathers with his management style, which is clearly very different from his ‘boat daddy’, Captain Lee.

‘Some of you were expecting Captain Lee. I was also expecting Captain Lee,’ he told the crew in their first meeting. ‘I was the delivery captain for the boat but he’s been delayed, so I don’t know when he’s going to get here but in the meantime you’re stuck with me.

‘I’m not very good at cracking the whip but I am excellent at swinging an axe, so just bear that in mind. Don’t do anything stupid because I really don’t care what position you play on board the boat… I’m not going to yell at you for it, I’m just going to fire you.

‘Don’t p**s me off, and if I have to run short-handed, I will.’

Captain Sean has briefly replaced Captain Lee on board (Picture: YouTube)

Eddie confessed that ‘alarms are ringing’ over Captain Sean’s management style (Picture: YouTube)

It didn’t take long for Captain Sean to inject his own style into life on board, with a concerned Eddie admitting that ‘alarms are ringing’ for him.

Things went from bad to worse for the Below Deck veteran when he was tasked with setting up one of their infamous picnics, with his new boss offering his own way of doing things, suggesting that cushions from the boat should be used to set up a swim platform and getting Eddie to fetch them.

Despite keeping the guests waiting for 25 minutes, he wanted everything to be perfect and asked for more time and furniture, with the former bosun growing increasingly frustrated with his constant calls over the radio.

Side note: We’ll be hearing ‘Eddie, Eddie,’ in our nightmares.

Captain Lee eventually returns to the boat (Picture: YouTube)

‘Captain Sean has got really good intentions and I respect that but at the same time it’s like… Dude’s crazy,’ he told the camera.

‘I’m trying to get a job done here but he’s not even giving me the chance.’

Thankfully for Eddie, we don’t have too long to wait until Captain Lee makes a gallant return, with the teaser for the season showing him stepping back on board.

Speaking about what happened ahead of the new series, the fan-proclaimed Stud of the Sea explained that he is doing ‘much better’ now, and his ‘condition’ was not related to the coronavirus pandemic.

‘The timing was mainly screwed up. Because we have such a tight shooting schedule, it was imperative that the guests’ charters start and end on time so it didn’t have a domino effect and impact every charter after that,’ he told E! News.

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‘There was just a lot of different things this year, because of the circumstances in which we had to film. A lot of things that we’re used to doing, we couldn’t do because we had to stay within the confines of our bubble because of Covid-19, so we had to improvise in some situations, which is not a bad thing.

‘Sometimes you can improvise and get extremely creative, which I like to think we’re pretty good at.’

‘It really felt good to get back on the water,’ he added of his eventual return. ‘When I finally got onboard, I was the happiest guy in the world.’

Second to Eddie, we’re guessing…

Below Deck is available to stream on hayu, with new episodes dropping on Tuesdays in the UK.

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