This Below Deck Season 1 Crew Member Was Originally Supposed to Be Captain

Captain Lee Rosbach has captivated us with his heroism, studliness, and even his softer side over the past six seasons of Below Deck. However, someone else almost ended up as the crew's fearless leader in Season 1 of the show.

According to a new Vulture article, Aleks Taldykin, Below Deck Season 1's first officer, was originally supposed to be captain of the Honor, but Captain Lee, who was the captain of the yacht before it was on the show, was asked to step in instead. “Lee was really pissed, which was really funny because now he loves it,” Aleks, who now runs his own yacht-charter company, recently told Vulture.

Captain Lee said in an interview in 2015 that he initially "wasn't overly thrilled" about appearing on TV, but he agreed to take on the job because his boss, the owner of the yacht, had asked him to.

Though Below Deck has definitely changed Captain Lee's life for the better, he wrote in his book, Running Against the Tide: True Tales from the Stud of the Sea, that the show has definitely not changed him. "Working on a TV show has been a learning experience, but at the same time, it hasn't changed who I am or what I do. First and foremost, I'm still a captain, a sailor. Whether there are cameras there or not, I do my job, try to keep the clients safe, try to keep my crew safe, and try to keep the boat in good shape... I've got a lot more people who know who I am now, but I don't think working in TV has changed me. If you thought I was a decent guy before, I'm still a decent guy. If you thought I was an ---hole before, then that's equally unchanged. It's all I know how to be," Captain Lee shared. "At the end of the day, I'm the captain of my boat and my life, and I'm exactly where I want to be."

Keep up with the high seas hijinks Mondays at 9/8c on Below Deck Mediterranean. Check out a sneak peek of an all-new episode, below.

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