Although the Below Deck Mediterranean crew members plan for the worst at sea, sometimes mother nature still throws them a curve ball. An encounter between deckhand Max Salvador and a sea creature went horribly wrong during Season 10, Episode 2, and forced the crew members to scramble to help him.
It all started when bosun Nathan Gallagher pointed out the “loads of jellyfish in the water” during the second day of the first charter, prompting Max to marvel at the animals.
“Wow look at this one! Life is incredible,” he exclaimed as the jellyfish swam next to motor yacht Bravado. He added in his confessional interview, “I love these beautiful blue-purple chandelier jellyfish. They’re f—king gorgeous. They look like majestic.”
Max was so enthralled by the jellyfish, he reached into the water off the swim platform, and said, “I ought to take one.”
But chief stew Aesha Scott was alarmed at his behavior, and warned him, “Is that not poisonous on top?” Max insisted, “You can grab them.”
However, Max turned out to be misinformed. After wiping his face a moment later, he immediately began to feel pain.
“Oh my gosh, [it’s starting to spike me. I swear,” he told Aesha and nearby deckhand Tessa Budd. Aesha replied, “No, you’re f—king joking,” but when it became clear this was no joke, she ordered him to “go to the captain.”
That’s when the crew all sprang into action to help.
“Nathan, Nathan, Nathan, who’s got the medical stuff?” Aesha urgently called into the radio as Max ran into the boat groaning, “Oh my god.”
Aesha explained on the radio, “He touched a jellyfish and he touched his eyes, and now his eyes are on fire.” Aesha added that Max was heading for the crew mess.
“[It’s] burning and I don’t know what to do,” Max exclaimed as he walked. When he ran into Captain Sandy Yawn, he described the pain as “ouch, ouch, like tabasco in the eyes.”
Sandy was confused as to how the whole situation happened. “Why’d you touch the fish?” she asked him, and he replied sheepishly, “I don’t know.” Sandy suggested Max put fresh water on it, and cameras captured Max with his face in the sink.
Nathan Gallagher admits frustration with his Below Deck Med crew
The Bravado deck team immediately got off on the wrong foot in a series of errors in the Season 10 premiere, and it only got worse in the Oct. 6 episode after the jellyfish injury.
“My grandfather was a captain, my family, we’ve got a catamaran, so I know how a boat is meant to be run, and this just feels wrong,” Tessa complained in her confessional.
During the first charter, primary guest Carl and his friends had to wait an hour and a half as the deck team got the water toys into the water. A charter guest described it as “intense” as the deckhands had trouble launching the wave runners, while Nathan called it and “absolute disgrace” and “embarrassing.”
The deck team’s problems also included a jet ski floating away, as well as a major mishap by Nathan, who appeared to destroy two light fixtures on deck as he operated the jet ski with a mechanical lift.
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He complained to Aesha as Max was treated for his injury in the Oct. 6 episode. “I wish I had the team last year, you know? I wish I had Gael [Cameron] and Joe [Bradley] ‘cause they took initiative,” he added.
Aesha pointed out, “You’ve got to constantly monitor everything they do,” and Nathan agreed: “100 percent.”
Captain Sandy explains how Max Salvador has changed in Below Deck Med Season 10
On the morning of the third day of the first charter, Captain Sandy checked in with Max about his eye injury.
“Kind of forgot already,” Max said, indicated he’d healed, and Sandy agreed, commenting, “It looks better.”
Sandy shared more with The Daily Dish about working with Max again, after he performed his deckhand duties in Season 8 of Below Deck Med.
“Max is passionate. Max is French. I love Max and the passion he brings,” she said in a Sept. 26 interview.” Max is a very different human being than he was the other season. He’s done a 180. I’m like, ‘Who are you?’ I like this Max. Very different Max.”
Although Max’s work ethic was questioned in Season 8, and he even floated the idea of quitting the charter season early, he assured Sandy he was a changed man for Season 10, and that his “devotion is to the maximum [level] now.”
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“In Bali, I discovered hypnosis. Like a snap, everything changed,” he said in the season premiere. “It blew my mind how powerful it was like for me to go to his new age of inner peace. I’m the new Max. I’m the new brand.”
Sandy called on Max to lead the deck team when they found themselves temporarily without Nathan ahead of the first charter due to illness. She was impressed with how he handled himself, telling him, “You came back a changed man.”
Don’t miss Aesha revealing a suprising update on her wedding to Scott Dobson during Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
