After firing stew Camille Lamb, Below Deck‘s Captain Sandy must find a replacement. Thanks to the new Season 10 preview trailer, we can confirm that ***ONE*** of the new crew members — and likely Camille’s replacement — is Leigh-Ann Smith from Cape Town, South Africa.
UPDATE – During Monday night’s episode, Captain Sandy could be heard requesting a replacement deck/stew as opposed to just a stew. She could also be seen printing out the resume of a male. He looks to be Camille’s replacement and we will share a post with more information tomorrow. (HERE IT IS! Meet Tyler Walker!) Leigh-Ann does join the crew this season, and it does appear that she is a stew. The only question is: Who is Leigh-Ann replacing? We talk about Fraser later in this article, but I should mention that there are reports that Alissa doesn’t make it through the season.
There have been rumors swirling recently that Leigh-Ann might be a new addition to M/Y St. David this season after it was noticed that several members of the cast and production followed her on Instagram. Those rumors were confirmed when Bravo dropped the new trailer for the second half of the season.
A boatload of surprises is still yet to come this season on #BelowDeck! Catch the latest episode tonight at 8/7c. pic.twitter.com/moAGIF85ej
— Bravo (@BravoTV) January 23, 2023
There is a clear shot of Leigh-Ann sitting beside Ben at a tip meeting, which includes her collarbone tattoo. There is also a scene in which she is kissing Ben in which you can see the large butterfly tattoo on her arm.
Wait… Ben and Leigh-Ann are kissing?! That’s right! When Leigh-Ann is introduced to the crew in the clip, Ben reveals that he already knows her. He also shares some additional info.
“We’ve got so many nudes of each other on our phones,” he says.
It’s unclear if Ben and Leigh-Ann have actually worked together on the same boat before. I scrolled through Ben’s and Leigh-Ann’s social media accounts and couldn’t find any photos of them together. However, I THINK I found photos of Leigh-Ann with another well-known Below Deck cast member!
There are lots of pictures of Leigh-Ann when she was a crew member aboard the sailing yacht Q in and around 2018. That boat participated in a couple of races around that time and its Instagram account shared photos of the crew. Leigh-Ann is tagged in one of the photos below — see if you can recognize anyone else:
Any luck? Here’s another photo without Leigh-Ann that might help you out:
Am I crazy, or is that Captain Glenn Shephard from Below Deck: Sailing Yacht?! That would definitely be a sparkling recommendation!
As far as background information on Leigh-Ann Smith, there’s not a lot available online. As mentioned above, she is from Cape Town, South Africa. It’s hinted in the preview clip that she may have prior chief stew experience. That would make sense given that Leigh-Ann has been in yachting for at least five years, based on her Instagram feed.
Speaking of that feed, if you want to follow Below Deck stew Leigh-Ann on Instagram, her handle is @leigh_annsmith_. Here are some examples from her account in which Leigh-Ann is looking quite 🔥🔥🔥:
I look forward to meeting Leigh-Ann! And I also look forward to seeing how the potential love triangle plays out between Ben, Leigh-Ann and Camille Lamb. (If you watched the trailer, you saw that Camille is coming back this season — apparently not as a crew member, but as Ben’s love/lust interest.) There’s NO WAY that’s not going to turn out messy, right?
Does Fraser Olender get fired?
In the preview clip, Captain Sandy appears to be coming down HARD on chief stew Fraser Olender. “The fish stinks at the head, and right now you’re that head,” she says.
The scene is edited to make it appear as though she is talking to Fraser, but we don’t actually see them in the same frame, so this could be producers playing around a little bit.
If you combine the fact that Captain Sandy appears to be very critical of Fraser, which she has been on previous charters, and the possibility that Leigh-Ann has chief stew experience, it does seem to open the door to the possibility of Fraser being fired later this season.
There has been NO evidence of that happening, though. Fraser has been nothing but positive online and during his appearances on Watch What Happens Live. Plus, Captain Lee Rosbach continues to sing Fraser’s praises.
If you watched the trailer, then you know that Captain Lee will be returning this season. I find it hard to believe that Captain Lee would be speaking so highly of Fraser if he didn’t make it through the charter season. Given Lee’s praises, I expect Fraser will end up turning the interior around.
To find out if that’s the case, be sure to keep tuning in for new episodes of Below Deck airing Monday nights at 8/7c on Bravo!
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
