Were Kate Chastain and Captain Lee from’Below Deck’ Always Close?
Chief stew Kate Chastain from Below Deck almost seems like one of Captain Lee Rosbach’s children at this point. The two have worked together since season two and today have a warm, loving relationship.
During the last season, their relationship was put to the test. Not only did the crew encounter a near-death experience, but Chastain’s career was also tested when she was shown verbally harassing third stew Caroline Bedol. She also clashed with Bedol’s replacement initially too.
But through it all, Rosbach had Chastain’s back, even supporting her when the verbal harassment claims proved to be true. But were they always such a tight team?
They didn’t interact much at first
Chastain dished with Bravo about her evolving relationship with Rosbach. “I don’t think we connected at all my first season,” she says. “And I didn’t particularly enjoy working for him.”
The second season of Below Deck featured Chastain. The first chief stew on the series was Adrienne Gang, who went onto to become a yacht chef. “My first season that I worked for Captain Lee, we really didn’t interact that much besides preference sheet meetings and then the blanket thing really threw him for a loop.”
Chastain really pushed her limits with Rosbach when she folded a blanket on an annoying guest’s bed into the shape of a “rocket ship.” Of course, the blanket wasn’t really a rocket ship, but something more phallic. Thankfully the guest found the blanket art to be funny and Chastain was not admonished.
But they eventually grew close
Rosbach could see how guests reacted to Chastain and ultimately he really grew to trust her. When Chastain resided in Florida she lived about three hours away from Rosbach so the two would catch up whenever possible.
“After my first season he [Rosbach] trusted me and we were able to arrive at a friendship,” Chastain revealed to Bravo. She added that she is so close to Rosbach and his wife, she considers them to be her adopted yachtie parents.
In 2016, Rosbach told Bravo’s The Daily Dish, the two would usually chat on the phone about once a week. “Kate and I get along really well,” he said. “We both know we can speak frankly with one another without fear of hurting each other’s feelings or that sort of thing. We can say what’s on our mind because we respect each other in that way. So it just makes things a whole lot easier.”
They are also in each other’s lives off the show
Chastain and Rosbach often show up in each other’s Instagram pictures. She’s seen at local galas with Rosbach and his wife. Last January, Chastain and Rosbach let someone else run the boat while they tooled around the waters of Ft. Lauderdale. “We could get used to this being charter guests thing,” she wrote on Instagram.
Rosbach was her season finale guest on her podcast After Deck. Chastain and former deckhand Connie Arias spent some time with Rosbach during the Winterfest Black Tie at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. “Winterfest Black Tie at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino with two of my favorite people. Thank you both,” he wrote.
