Life at sea isn’t all white-glove service and bubbly. The Below Deck Down Under crew regularly finds themselves in dangerous situations, and if safety protocol isn’t followed to a T, there can be grave consequences.
During the Below Deck Down Under After Show, Below Deck Down Under Season 4 second officer João Franco recalled some of the closest calls he’s experienced while on board, and one involved Below Deck Mediterranean’s Colin Macy-O’Toole.
“[On board] Sirocco, we had a situation—I would say the deadliest that we’ve been through—with Colin,” João recalled. “He was pulling up the anchor, and he was looking over the side…the chain got caught, and it started accumulating on deck… Colin was trying to yank the last two links that were holding three and a half tons worth of weight. So when I got there, I went, ‘Colin, stop, stop, stop! F—king stop!’”
João didn’t mince words on the gravity of the situation. “That there, I’ve known people who have lost lives, lost legs,” he said. “It was such a short moment where we fixed it, and nothing happened, so it didn’t seem like a big deal, but it was one of the most heartfelt times I thought, ‘F—k, we almost lost someone.’”
RELATED: Where Is Colin Macy-O’Toole from Below Deck Med Now? See Inside His Life Today
There was a dangerous anchor problem during the Below Deck Down Under Season 4
A problem with the anchor chain also arose during Below Deck Down Under Season 4, Episode 2, as deckhand Betul Yazici was attempting to pick it up. As frothy water started coming up with the chain on deck, João yelled out to stop.
“Whenever we pull up anchor, the chain could pile up too high and too fast, and jam the system,” he explained to producers during the Feb. 9 episode. “The only way we can fix this is to let the chain all out and start the process again.”
The anchor proved difficult to correct, however, and João was forced to climb down into a space underneath the deck to try and help. He later revealed just how treacherous that is.
“Going into the bosun’s locker and then opening the chain locker is probably one of the most dangerous things you to do because of the enclosed space—you can lose oxygen immediately,” he explained on the After Show. “And I’ve fought dizziness right away.”
But Betul praised how João was unfazed by the situation. “At that moment, João, he was so calm. He was down there trying to figure out the problem,” she shared on the After Show.
By the time the anchor chain was untwisted and fixed, the crew was 52 minutes behind schedule to take their charter guests (AKA the Season 6 cast of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City) to the beach. Although Daisy called the delay “frustrating” during the After Show, João pointed out it couldn’t be helped—and this time they had a good outcome.
“These things happen. We’ve had situations where we’ve almost lost an entire anchor. If we couldn’t get it up, we’d drop the anchor and keep going,” he shared.
Don’t miss a look at a steamy boatmance to come involving Daisy and João in the Below Deck Down Under Season 4 trailer.
