We’re inching closer to the finale on this season of Below Deck Sailing Yacht. And at the top of the hour, the crew is still in the midst of their fancy, catered dinner aboard Parsifal. It’s a school night, with the final charter beginning the next morning. So everyone knows they’re supposed to be on their best behavior. But obviously that doesn’t keep Gary King from trying his darnedest to be naughty with Scarlett Bentley. Despite the new stew shutting down his attempts at PDA every chance she gets. She’s more concerned about staying on good terms with everyone on the team through the rest of the season. And knows that cuddling up too close to Gary would have the precise opposite reaction. Sorry, Gary.
Chef Marcos Spaziani can hardly enjoy himself during the nice meal, though. He’s too stressed about having to go fully gluten- and dairy-free on the hardest charter of the season. And it’s not just a snobbish dietary preference, this time. The incoming primary has Celiac disease. So anything with gluten in it would be a major danger to her health. Yes, including the multi-tiered wedding cake she’s requested. So rather than party with his crew mates, Marcos is down in the galley prepping all things gluten-free.
Eventually, Gary and Colin Macrae manage to tear him away from his meal prep for an hour of fun. Which is turns into an another hour. Then another. Soon enough, the entire crew is lining up for the boys to take a round of hurricanes. Giving all the girls another chance to slap someone in the face after throwing a cup of water on them. Of course, Daisy Kelliher delights in getting to smack Gary. And Gary delights equally in spraying her with the shot he had saved in his mouth. The evening turns into a slightly raucous jacuzzi party before everyone calls it a night. As Daisy says in her confessional, the hangover will be a problem for tomorrow. So will Marcos‘ lack of sleep, when he, Colin and Gary stay up until 2 a.m. devolving into that weird kind of slap-happy roughhousing-turned-cuddling that some straight men seem to relish. I’ll never understand it.
The next morning, everyone’s severely hung over but alive. Except Captain Glenn Shephard, who understandably has absolutely no sympathy whatsoever for his crew’s “self-inflicted” misery. He told them not to go crazy, after all. The hours tick away and the charter pickup draws ever closer. At 8:30 a.m., Kelsie Goglia‘s picking up all the empty bottles littered around the deck while Daisy and Scarlett clean up the bar. By 9 a.m. pretty much everyone is up and working…except for Marcos and Colin, who’s fast asleep in their cabin. This is a bigger problem for the chef, who has plenty of things he could be doing in the galley to prepare. You know it’s especially bad when the captain has to come wake you up…
Somehow preparations for the charter come together with minutes to spare. Despite Scarlett misplacing her radio. And Captain Glenn pointedly procrastinating writing the speech he’s supposed to give for the guests’ beachside wedding. And Daisy dropping a tray of glasses. Oh, and Chef Marcos having absolutely no idea what he’s going to cook for the next three days. But ready or not, here the guests come! With matching suitcases!
En route to Ses Dames, Captain Glenn gives the guests a pre-wedding gift of a sail. It’s good timing considering they probably won’t be able to sail for the rest of the charter. A.k.a. the remainder of the season. And Chef Marcos manages to whip up his first purely gluten-free meal of the charter. So even when they’re dragging, it feels like the team is still succeeding.
After taking the guests out in the tender to explore some caves, Gary returns to Parsifal, where the topic of marriage gets brought up in the crew mess. It’s on everyone’s minds, considering they’re about to throw a wedding for their grand finale. But Gary says he doesn’t believe in marriage. He does want a girlfriend, though. As long as she’s a yachtie, too. Because he prefers up close and personal to long distance. And he eventually wants kids as well. Any takers? Daisy? Eavesdropping on the conversation from the laundry room, Ashley Marti and Scarlett both declare they’re officially over the first mate. But we’ll see how true that resolve holds in the next few days.
For their first dinner, the guests have requested an astrology-themed meal. Which means the stews have on questionable makeup and placards with their astrological signs. (Daisy‘s a Gemini, in case anyone was wondering. Marcos is a Capricorn.) To compensate for the dietary restrictions, the chef leans into a colorful, veggie-forward meal including vodka tomato soup, shishito peppers with strawberry and red pepper coulis, and gluten-free spaghetti with zucchini and cherry tomatoes in a combination of truffle, basil and paprika oil. Making it work, Marcos! Now the poor guy just has to start making a gluten-free wedding cake. At 11:30 at night.
The next morning is the last full day of the season. And despite barely sleeping, Marcos has three perfectly round layers of wedding cake baked and cooling in the crew mess. While some of the guests enjoy a casual morning of swimming and water sports, Marcos gets to work icing the cake for the wedding. And the bride and groom-to-be (not the primary, by the way) meet with Captain Glenn to go over logistics for their big day. They want everything to be “short and sweet” but also, you know, completely perfect. No pressure at all.
Daisy puts Ashley in charge of setting up the beach for the ceremony. And Barnaby Birkbeck volunteers to come along to help. But once they arrive at the beach in mind with only two hours to spare, it’s covered with people. They’re literally everywhere. Leaving no room to decorate an entire wedding ceremony. Gary makes the executive decision that the best thing to do is hope that the beach clears out by 6:30. That’s cutting it awfully close, considering Daisy tells the guests to be ready at ten to seven. But hey, at least the wedding cake is done.
Finally, the time for the wedding arrives. And there’s still a complicated web of logistics. Lots of going back and forth on the tender, dropping certain crew members off and taking others back to the boat. Not to mention, you know, the guests. The groom. And lastly, the bride, attended to by Scarlett and Ashley. Daisy‘s recruited Colin to play music as the bride walks down the aisle. Captain Glenn‘s officiating, of course. For some reason the bride doesn’t have a bouquet, and the groom’s wearing a collar-less shirt. So I’m a little distracted during their vows. But the wedding was surely magical for them, and now they have it forever on Bravo! Next week: the season finale!
TELL US – WERE YOU IMPRESSED BY EVERYTHING MARCOS PULLED OUT THIS CHARTER? DID ASHLEY DO A GOOD JOB DECORATING FOR THE WEDDING? WOULD YOU GET MARRIED ON A BELOW DECK FRANCHISE?
[Photo Credit: Bravo]