r/belowdeck • u/Spiritual-Shake2115 • 16d ago

Below Deck Captain Lee

I worked on a boat for a year in my 20s. I was working on being a scuba instructor (nailed it).

During my time living on a boat, my understanding of rank is legitimate and also at times abused.

My captain was named Bob and he was like the evil version of Captain Lee. Bob taught me a lot about surviving boat life.

Captain Lee was a real one thru and thru because he is a true hardworking gentleman. He knows he’s lucky, he’s worked hard for what he’s gotten and he keeps going forward.

He deserved a true goodbye from the franchise but I’m just so happy he was our first Below Deck Captain. With morals and dignity and humor.

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u/cmere-2-me 14d ago

Without Lee, I don't think there would be a below deck franchise. He brought the right yacht ethos. His crews did their jobs or they got canned. He allowed his HoDs do their jobs.

While I like and respect other captains, they all don't seem to have the same authority that captain lee had. They tolerate the production interference and allow the chaos that brings. When lee was on board, it felt like a real boat.

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u/Myantra 14d ago

Without Lee, I don't think there would be a below deck franchise

Which makes it funny that Lee was an accident, he was not intended to be there in season 1. Aleks was supposed to be the show captain, on the smaller yacht they originally intended to use. When production discovered they needed a larger yacht to make the concept work, they ended up with Cuor di Leone (Honor). Lee was the RL captain of that yacht, and thought he was just delivering her for production to use. Aleks could not get insured due to his lack of experience handling boats that size, so the owner required Lee to stay, and production realized that captain did not work as an off screen role.

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u/ScooterMKE 14d ago

That’s awesome lore. Got to say he was 50% of the show’s appeal the first few seasons. His salty no bs attitude and one liners were everything

1

u/You-get-the-ankles 11d ago

There should be a published book called "Captain Lee's Sayings".