‘Below Deck Adventure’ Chief Stew Faye Teases Conflict With Deck Crew – ‘It Was Extremely Frustrating’ [Exclusive]
Bravo‘s Below Deck Adventure chief stew Faye Clarke teased plenty of drama within the interior but she also revealed that the deck team was a massive source of frustration.
Unlike other Below Deck series, deckhands on the Adventure series aren’t wrestling with a waterslide from hell or deploying endless watertoys. Instead, a big priority is making sure the daredevil guest excursions are thrilling and safe. Clarke said the interior team was also in charge of guest excursions, which sometimes paved the way for the deck team to sometimes sit back and let Clarke and crew handle the grunt work.
‘Below Deck Adventure’ deck team didn’t understand the interior’s work level, chief stew Faye Clarke said
Clarke told Showbiz Cheat Sheet that endless days with most of the work on the interior made for an exhausting season.
“Honestly, it was extremely frustrating,” the Below Deck Adventure chief stew said. “I’m not going to lie because it was Norway, because sometimes the weather was really bad. And not only that, the sun didn’t go down. So people were getting up and not going back to bed till like the next day.”
“So I was working every hour under the sun and so was [stew] Kasie [Faddah]. So was [stew] Oriana [Schneps]. We were exhausted and we were doing excursions and stuff and taking the guests on excursions. So I would have loved a little bit more support, I suppose. But I don’t think the boys quite understood the demand that the interior had, and it was extremely frustrating.”
‘Below Deck Adventure’ featured thrilling guest excursions
Beyond cleaning the exterior, a big part of the Below Deck deck team is usually water toys. Because this superyacht excursion is in cold water, the deck team’s jobs are also very different.
“We didn’t get any slides out. I mean, we got the jet skis out and but it was more based around giving the guests a different experience,” she shared. “I would imagine most of these guests have already been on jet skis and been on a yacht and slid down slides.”
“We wanted them to have something different, something they’ve never experienced before,” Clarke said. “So that kind of experience was onshore. So it was like the logistics of getting them off the boat in a tender. Taking them to shore, driving maybe sometimes miles to a cave or the top of a mountain or to a helicopter place. It was more involved like that rather than the boys getting outside.”
The land experiences were also extreme. “There was one point where one of the guests not only wanted to go to a cave, she went to do lunch in a cave and she wanted a photoshoot in a cave,” Clarke recalled. “So I’m organizing all the clothes for the photo shoot, the photographer. Just getting them to the cave, the fact that it’s freezing in the cave, and, all the food and stuff. On Below Deck people usually see them taking [the guests] to the beach. But yeah. It was tough.”
The deck team isn’t the only crew who causes drama
Although the deck team could have been more supportive, Clarke teased that it’s not all roses and sunshine with her interior crew and chef Jessica Condy.
“Some of the guys are quite feisty and I think [bosun] Lewis [Lupton] definitely had a challenge with the competitive kind of guys,” she dished. “And then you’ve got Oriana and you don’t know what mood she’s going to be in one minute. She’s like, absolutely fantastic. Next minute she’s up with the fairies. Next minute she’s creating drama. Her and Jess, the chef, I was always in the middle of them, trying to keep everybody happy.”
“That’s the thing, you know? Being a chief stew being in the middle, I’m trying to keep the peace and I’m trying to keep everybody happy and I’m trying to keep everybody doing their job,” she reflected. “So there’s not only just like the physical kind of action side of drama, there’s going to be a lot of drama in that galley … trust me.”
Below Deck Adventure Season 1 premieres on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo.
