BELOW DECK MED Who is new stew Delaney Evans?
The COVID-19 pandemic has made filming for Below Deck: Mediterranean a little more difficult, especially if a crew member gets fired, quits, or gets injured. Next week the crew of The Lady Michelle will be joined with a new crew member, who’s been quarantining and will help pick up the slack of a struggling interior staff.
On the very first charter of Season 6 Chef Mat walked off the boat because of an injury, and after the second charter he quit while in a drunken emotional spiral. The first time Captain Sandy was left without Mat onboard, she immediately called in a backup chef to go into quarantine.
She also went ahead and arranged for another crew member to go into quarantine to come on board if needed. From the beginning 2nd Stew Lexi Wilson has had issues with the rest of the team that escalated during the same night that Mat quit (oddly enough, these issues happened separately and hardly anyone knew Mat had quit until the next morning.) Lexi considered quitting, but decided to stick out the job. When Cheif Stew Katie addressed concerns about Lexi with Captain Sandy, Sandy encouraged Katie to be a better leader and give Lexi another chance.
Chief Stew Katie Flood likes to rotate the responsibilities of the stews so they all get a chance to serve guests and learn all aspects of the job. Lexi is excellent at serving guests at night, but she struggles with laundry, cabins, and breakfast service.
Captain Sandy pulled Cheif Stew Katie aside and told her that there was another staff waiting in quarantine at a hotel. She is being paid a base salary by the boat anyway, so if she’s not brought on, she will simply be sitting ina hotel room. Katie welcomes the extra help because the last guests, who have been on Below Deck: Med twice before (only once before with Captain Sandy,) really enjoyed their trip, but felt a bit neglected when it came to service. However, she’s worried about how the other two stews will handle the new crew dynamic, especially since she knows Lexi tends to respond aggressively to criticism.
Katie decides to eliminate any hierarchy of positions with the three stews under her position, which doesn’t exactly demote Lexi, but leaves her without feeling she has a top position. This will probably have some sort of social effect on the group, since on the last charger Lexi explained that she loved telling guests she was the 2nd Stew because of the respect they give to her because of that position.
The new stew Delaney Evans on board might also struggle with these rotating duties and lack of ranking, as she is trained to work on both the interior and the deck, and has a captain’s license.
“Went to Berkley, got my captain’s license, now I’m doing laundry,” Delaney says in a preview clip. “Whatever!”
Delaney shared more about her background in a blog on her website a few days ago. She grew up in Seattle Washington and got into boating in high school when her family moved to San Diego. She got a bachelor’s degree in Media Studies at Berkley, where she was a part of the sailing team.
During summers off of university, Delaney worked a fiotilla skipper in the Mediterranean, and after she graduated, she fully committed to yachting as a career. She soon moved to working on the deck on superyachts like the Lady Michelle, but she spends most of her time running sport fishing day charters in Hawaii, where she lives. “While enjoying my day to day adventures,” she writes. “I am also working to secure my 200 ton Captain license. I am still an avid sailor and find myself on a boat almost every day, working or not. I am thrilled to continue my journey through the many varieties of roles and experiences in yachting.”
Top photo: Delaney Evans Instagram, Bravo
