We’re back in Australia (specifically Cairns, site of a certain boat crash involving a certain luxury yacht captain) with Captain Jason Chambers and a new season of Below Deck Down Under!

Jason has his work cut out for him this season, as the yacht he is captaining, The Northern Sun, is a refurbished one from 1977. Jason mentions that the yacht has been updated for the guests, but not for him – there are no modern controls on this yacht, and it only has one rudder, which makes steering a lot more difficult. As they depart for the first charter, there is a close call with almost knocking into the dock, so we’ll see how he manages with all future maneuvers. As Jason gets ready to meet the crew before the first charter, he get the news that a stewardess is delayed because she is on another boat, and a potential deckhand has visa issues, so the crew is already down 2 people before the season even begins!

The only returning crew member from season 1 is Chief Stewardess Aesha Scott, who is just a human ray of sunshine. Even though Aesha says she’s going to be a “tough bitch”, she quickly corrects herself and says she’ll be a “tougher bitch” this season, and not let anyone walk all over her. If this episode is any indication, she has a long way to go, but more on that later. During the charter, when Jason calls Aesha to his room to help him put in his contacts, she gets downright giddy, because she “loves eyeballs.” I mean if anyone was made for reality television, it’s Aesha. I’m happy she made the jump between franchises because she was so great on Below Deck Mediterranean, and this just seems like such a natural fit for her.

Our new bosun is named Luke, and he immediately seems to click with Captain Jason, very unlike Jamie from last season. Luke says he was a second officer and hated it because he was in front of a computer all day. He prefers to be out and about with the deck crew and seems very knowledgeable – he already had to navigate the close call with being too close to the dock, so we’ll have to see how things go when they dock into a slip, but he seems solid so far.

On deck with Luke is deckhand Adam, from Brooklyn – who gets seasick and can’t swim, and bribed his remedial swimming instructor to pass him. Adam says in high school he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life, and found boating, despite the aforementioned seasickness and inability to swim; seems like two things that would immediately dissuade someone from the yachting life, but to each his own. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Aussie deckhand Harry, who seems all about the life aquatic. The deck team seems to get along very well so far; Luke is extremely eager and excited, and he seems to want to both learn from and teach his new crew.

New Chef Tzarina, who hails from England, immediately has some issues with the galley, as it’s pretty small and there is not much space for preparation. Jason asks her how it’s going and she tells him she’s frustrated by the situation; later, she says she thought about quitting three times already. Not a great start, but I think she just needs to find her footing in the galley and come up with her own way of doing things. Her food, especially her charcuterie board(s!) looks absolutely amazing. (Side note: Ileisha from this season of Below Deck Sailing Yacht was probably the best chef I’ve ever seen across all franchises, so after watching her all season, Tzarina has her work cut out for her). Again, unlike last season on Down Under, where Chef Ryan disregarded preference sheets and didn’t seem to care about his job, Tzarina just wants to do her absolute best. She explains that she is dyslexic, so she goes through guest preference sheets very thoroughly to understand their needs. I hope she gets things together because she seems great at her job and is way too hard on herself, like most of these chefs are.

Rounding out the crew is stewardess Laura, from Latvia. At first she seems like a no-nonsense type of stew, but when Aesha asks her to change from her uniform into her more casual “blues,” Laura takes 20 minutes, casually doing her hair and applying makeup. She finally comes back, after the guests keep calling for her, and Aesha says she took way too long to change (so a little tougher, but not in a bitchy way). In a confessional, Laura doesn’t understand the big deal, because in Latvia it’s all about beauty and she says she should look good doing her job – which, ok sure – but not for 20 minutes and not when poor Aesha is running around like a chicken without a head for these demanding guests. Later, Aesha explains that they can’t really take breaks because there’s only two of them, and Laura says she doesn’t expect a break when they’re a stew down; Aesha is really happy to hear that and loves that Laura is experienced and can be her right hand. Again, we’ll see how another stew added to this mix changes things up, but Aesha is just trying to keep her head above water, for now.

Oh and these guests. I’m always surprised at how people act when they know that cameras are rolling. Five minutes into the charter, the guests start arguing; primary guest Carmen mentions that Kristyl has something on her face and all hell breaks loose. Their friends get involved and start screaming, all while Aesha sneaks around to try to avoid them mid-tantrum. They continually yell for Laura to get them drinks, and the “sober on the preference sheet” Kristyl changes her mind (just like Aesha said she would!) and decides she’s into alcohol again, so let the Bacardi flow! Luke takes them to a scuba diving experience, which looks incredible; it’s not really scuba diving, but what I imagine was the precursor to scuba – a huge helmet that each guest can wear while going underwater to swim with the fish. Luke enjoys himself along with the guests and then it’s back to the boat.

Dinner goes well and the guests (mostly) go to bed. Jason tells Luke to keep a deckhand up, just in case, but Luke goes to bed and tells Adam and Harry to as well, since he thinks they’ll be too tired for work the next day if they don’t. As the stew crew are cleaning up, one of the guests named Brandon, wearing only a blue speedo, wanders around the boat and asks Aesha for more champagne; she fills his glass and he goes away. Aesha tells Laura that Aesha will go down and take the early shift, so Laura can go down later and wake up later. After Aesha goes to bed, Laura is cleaning up and Brandon pops up again to ask Laura if it’s ok if they (meaning he and Kristyl, who is now also up and about) can go swimming. Laura bluntly tells them they cannot, since it’s late, they’re drunk, and it’s too dark. Brandon tells Kristyl they need to sneak out if they want to swim, and the two proceed to jump off the boat into the water. Laura has no choice but to wake Jason, who looks for the deckhand that’s supposed to be around, and Jason gets up. He tells the guests to get out of the water and if they do something like this again, he’ll go back to the marina. Because they’re wasted, Kristyl gets mouthy with the captain, and Jason decides he’s just going to take the guests back to the marina the next day to cut things short.

So brand new boat, brand new crew, and same old drama! From the trailer, it looks like it’s going to be an interesting season, with what Aesha describes as a “love pentagon” between the deckhands and stews. Jason terminates someone, and hopefully next episode we’ll have some new crew to meet. I love the different flavor that each Below Deck brings, and that there are now so many shows that when one ends we immediately dive into another one – pun very much intended.

MxM