Captain Lee Rosbach was “mortified” watching “Below Deck Down Under” stars Luke Jones and Laura Bileskalne’s nonconsensual actions toward other crew members.
“Their behavior was despicable. Both of them,” Rosbach told Us Weekly Thursday. “And I’m sure they’ll be paying the price for it for a long time to come. As they should.”
The longtime “Below Deck” captain, 73, also shared how “impressed” he was with Captain Jason Chambers, chief stew Aesha Scott and the Bravo reality show’s production crew for “not getting rattled” and handling both incidents “calmly.”
“I don’t know if I would have had the wherewithal to remain as calm as Captain Jason did, but he certainly stepped up to the plate and did it right,” Rosbach said, adding that he is “grateful” he never dealt with a similar situation onboard.
Rosbach, who has spent more than three decades as a superyacht captain, acknowledged that Chambers, 50, and Scott, 31, were in a “tough spot,” but said they “handled it superbly.”
“I think [the fans’] reaction is justified and their praise for not only production but for Aesha and for Captain Jason as well,” he added. “They all stepped up to the plate and did the right thing at the appropriate time and didn’t let anything get carried away, didn’t put it on the back burner, didn’t cover it up. They just dealt with it appropriately.”
In Monday’s episode, Jones, 32, walked into stewardess Margot Sisson’s room and crawled into her top bunk bed without clothes — or her permission — while she was was asleep.
“Luke, we gotta get you down,” a production member immediately said while intervening. “I gotta get you out of here because she wants to go to bed.”
Jones became upset with the producer for interrupting him and stormed toward the door while demanding, “Can you f—k off for a second?”
He then became more annoyed and slammed the door while trying to stop producers from walking inside before leaving and going into his own bedroom, where he locked the door in an attempt to avoid producers and his castmates.
Scott quickly went to check on Sisson and then filled in Chambers on what had happened. Chambers immediately unlocked Jones’ door and forced him to leave the boat that night. He was fired the morning after.
That same morning, Bileskalne, 31, talked with Sisson and defended Jones’ actions, saying he was “only joking” and she wished he had done that to her.
Prior to the conversation, Bileskalne also tried to give deckhand Adam Kodra a massage without his consent.
Chambers fired her later that day for having “disrespected” both himself and the crew members.
Viewers have flooded social media with praise for production, Scott and Chambers for the way they handled the ordeal.
Bileskalne has since apologized to Kodra and admitted she was “not able to empathize” with Sisson the way she should have.
However, Jones shared a since-deleted Instagram post in which he said he does not “care” and what fans saw was “not the truth.”
Meanwhile, Scott, Chambers and Sisson have all taken to social media to express their gratitude for the outpouring of support and love from fans.
“Below Deck Down Under” airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.
