Colin MacRae Says Seeing Chef Marcos Spaziani's Head Injury Was a "Shock to the System"

Yachting can be a dangerous profession, as we've seen on Below Deck over the years. Crews from across the franchise have encountered injuries, illnesses, and medical emergencies of all kinds in this high-pressure and physically demanding industry.

However, no injury has perhaps looked quite as gruesome as what Marcos Spaziani suffered in the March 14 episode of Below Deck Sailing Yacht. As the chef exited the refrigerator located beneath the crew quarters, he hit his head and took off a small piece of his scalp.

Colin MacRae rushed to assist Daisy Kelliher in helping tend to Marcos during the episode. "Oh, it was a shock. I think Daisy came up and got me, and I ran downstairs and just saw this hole in Marcos’ head pouring out blood and he was holding a chunk of his own scalp in his hand," Colin recalled during an exclusive interview with Bravo Insider. "It turned out to be not as deep and serious as we initially thought, but yeah, when someone’s holding a piece of their scalp in their hand, it’s a bit of a shock to the system."

After Captain Glenn Shephard advised Marcos to keep pressure on his cut and dress his wound, a doctor came aboard the Parsifal III to examine the chef. The doctor said that the damage was only superficial and that Marcos would not require any additional treatment beyond keeping the wound bandaged and changing the dressings. Marcos then assured Captain Glenn that dinner would be on time, and the chef got right back to work preparing the next meal for Erica Rose and the rest of the charter guests.

That was no small feat, especially since Erica's husband, Chuck, had been critical of the chef's cooking earlier in the day. Colin told Bravo Insider that Chuck was "extremely difficult" and "extremely disrespectful," especially toward Marcos. "Marcos is the best chef I’ve ever worked with. The primary, Erica’s husband, just, I think he said that he’d rather eat McDonald’s or something like that, which is just so wrong for the level of food that Marcos was producing," Colin said. "[I] really, really had to hold my tongue when talking to the guests after that."

Chef Marcos Spaziani Has a Difficult Guest on His Hands

Marcos, thankfully, recovered quickly from his head injury (and these charter guests), but that won't be the only painful experience for the Parsifal III crew this season. Colin also shared that there is another "pretty bad injury" coming up later in Season 3. "It was a tough season all around," he said.

And that doesn't even cover all of the falling we see among the crew in the trailer for this season, as the yachties tumble out of their bunks and take spills on the stairs. Colin said that he chalks all of that up to "copious amounts of alcohol" consumed by the crew during the charter season.

"I think we did, like, nine charters or something, and every time a charter finishes, we drink together and we often drink in excess, so there were multiple nights out where we were highly intoxicated, and that’s the result," he said. "That’s the part that’s not nice watching on TV is yourself drunk as a skunk."

But there are some good things that have come out of all of those nights off, including a true friendship between Colin and Marcos that has lasted beyond this charter season. "I got to develop a really strong bond with the chef, Marcos. We talk almost every day still. We’re talking about going into business together, like it’s a genuine friendship that developed," Colin said. "So that was really rewarding, is coming out of that season having a new close friend that we call each other brothers now. It was a really strong connection that we formed over those six weeks."

And don't worry; Colin has room in his heart for both Marcos and his BFF, Gary King. When asked who was the worst roommate this season, Colin gave the very diplomatic answer that Gary and Marcos were just "different." "Marcos was hilarious. He’s, like, very protective about his bed and his pillow and stuff like that, so when we’re getting a bit rowdy in there, like we weren’t allowed to go near his bed or f--k with his stuff," Colin recalled. "But Gary had a couple of different girls in and out of his bed, so that was kind of annoying at times. But you all know Gary. He’s a bit of a ladies' man, that’s for sure."

Even though "there’s a lot of drama" and "some really serious stuff" this season of Below Deck Sailing Yacht, according to Colin, the chief engineer said that "there’s a lot of laughs as well," especially where he and his bunkmates are concerned. "This season is really funny, like we call it 'The Giggle Club.' Like, me, Marcos, and Gary were just giggling the entire time like a bunch of school girls," Colin said. "It was just a really fun season to do."