It’s expensive to charter a boat on Below Deck Mediterranean — and it costs even more when something goes wrong.
During the Monday, July 15, episode of the hit Bravo series, Captain Sandy Yawn was trying to lift the anchor to head back to the dock. However, the anchor windlass malfunctioned, which forced the crew to leave it in the middle of the ocean.
“I’ve never had to leave an anchor on purpose because the windlass didn’t work. We tried to tie a line on and bring the anchor in by hand, but it didn’t work,” Sandy, 59, explained to the cameras. “The second option is we leave our anchor and have someone come and retrieve it.”
The captain admitted it was “a risk” to leave their anchor. A message flashed across the screen clarifying that if they weren’t able to get their anchor back, a new anchor and chain costs more than $65,000.
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“It is a very expensive piece of equipment. Hopefully it is still there when we return,” Sandy noted. “The weather is here, I have to get these clients back to the dock. We don’t really have an option.”
With help from the deck team, Sandy was able to disengage her anchor from the boat. Joe Bradley got creative to help make sure that a team would be able to find their anchor and bring it back to them later on.
“We are putting reflective tape around the buoy that is holding our chain,” Sandy detailed in a confessional. “If you saw the movie Jaws, they did the same thing so they could see where the shark was. Hopefully it works out better for us.”
Sandy let Marina Emergency Services know they would require assistance before they even arrived at their destination, saying, “We had to leave our anchor at our last anchorage. We need a hydraulic technician at the dock, and we are also going to need a retrieval team to go back and get our anchor and bring it back to the vessel to help us load it on board.”
After docking at the marina — and saying goodbye to guests including The Traitors winner Trishelle Cannatella — Sandy and the team were reunited with their anchor. Another message on the screen pointed out that the entire anchor retrieval and reattachment process came out to $40,419.93.
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“Divers, they go down with airbags and they float it up. Now to put the chain back on board, they put a line through the hole that goes through the boat that the chain travels through,” Sandy shared. “We wrap that around the drum of the windlass and then haul it in. Smooth operation.”
Getting the anchor connected back to Mustique wasn’t the end of Sandy’s problems. Later in the episode, Sandy realized she had bigger issues to worry about ahead of their next charter.
“I’m getting a news report about wildfires that are burning a couple hours from the marina. This is the first time in my career that I have dealt with wildfires,” she revealed. “It is not really close to the boat yet, but according to the news, it is getting closer throughout the day, and we need to get off the dock before we have a problem.”
Sandy was already worried about running out of time before the guests even boarded. Once they did, Sandy noticed the obstacles that had her concerned about a safe exit from the marina.
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“Right now the wind is getting worse, and we have a boat on our port side and another boat that just pulled in front of us,” she said about the complications. “Typically I wouldn’t take the risk to leave the dock, but because we have so much smoke coming in, I have to get this vessel off the dock, so I am going to take the risk.”
The episode ended with a “To Be Continued” message once Sandy realized she might be too close to the other boats.
“It is crazy. We can see the fires over the hills. I have clients onboard and I can smell the ash that is on top of us. I have to figure out how to get out,” she concluded. “There is six inches between the ground line, the dock and the other boats. I am boxed in. And if I make one wrong maneuver, this season is over.”
Below Deck Mediterranean season 9 airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
