‘Below Deck Med’: How Does Captain Sandy Handle Difficult Charter Guests?

Captain Sandy Yawn from Below Deck Mediterranean has had her fair share of crazy charter guests. From the demanding “nuts” ladies during season 3 to a group of overenthusiastic women who fought for Yawn’s attention, the tenured captain has certainly had some guest challenges.

However, she recently told Daryn Carp from People TV that she’s never had to kick a charter guest off the boat mid-charter. “Thankfully I haven’t had that experience,” Yawn said. “But I’ve had insubordinate guests that are insubordinate with the law, just awful to the crew.”

“I have not thankfully had to put any guests off the boat,” she continued. “Because that’s really not good in your career path.” Viewers recently saw Captain Glenn Shephard from Below Deck Sailing Yacht deal with a guest issue during the latest episode. The guest became so drunk, he started to argue with his girlfriend in their room. Shephard kept deckhand Parker McCown nearby in case they needed to restrain the guest. Thankfully it never came to that.

Captain Sandy will speak privately to the primary

Rather than putting the entire group on blast, Yawn prefers to pull the primary aside and have a discussion. “I just pull the primary aside and have a discussion,” she says. “And humanize my crew to them. And it seems to turn around.”

Shephard was also confronted with the possibility of having to officiate a wedding ceremony onboard. He looked slightly stunned when the couple suggested he marry them. A crew member asked if he could perform the ceremony and he really wasn’t sure if he could.

Yawn also hasn’t had to officiate a ceremony. What would she do in the same position? “I have not [officiated a wedding], but I’d love to,” Yawn says. “I’ve been asked many times but no one has ever followed through. How would I handle it? As a captain, you just roll with it because just like in most industries, you do what the client wants you to do unless it’s dangerous.”

What about when the guests (or in some cases the crew) don’t realize you are the captain?

Yawn has been mistaken for a chief stew or first mate on a number of occasions. In fact, she delivered a hilarious response in some cases when someone asks her where is the captain. “Someone will come up and say, ‘Can I see the captain?’ I’m like, ‘They’re not here right now.'”

Chef Adam Glick didn’t realize that Yawn was the captain when he first met her. He thought she was the first mate or the chief stew. Carp wondered what was going through Yawn’s mind when that happened. “Well, he didn’t know, I mean he had just met me for the first time so most women are not captains,” Yawn commented. “So he probably thought I was the first mate. It happens all the time, Daryn. Constantly.”

Carp wondered if Yawn was annoyed when Glick got it wrong. But Yawn said, “I don’t know, I’m a gentle soul. I handle things very gently.”