Can you imagine kissing a relative stranger right now — say, someone you’ve known for less than four days? The cast of Below Deck Sailing Yacht sure could by the time they got onboard the Parsifal III, months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the magic of reality-TV bubbling and testing, the cast and charter guests were able to interact as normal during the pandemic, meaning we still get to watch the crew’s usual night-off debauchery, even if they can’t go to bars and clubs. As our entirely new group of yachties partied it up by the hot tub the night their first charter ended, it took no time at all for the making out to begin. First, it was deckhand Sydney Zaruba and third stew Alli Dore, nearly dragging each other off the hot tub in the process. “When I’m drunk, I’m definitely a little bit of a flirt,†Sydney said in her confessional. “Drunk Sydney just likes a body next to her.â€
But as the night went on, Sydney got closer with first mate Gary King, after Gary spent the previous days talking about how he couldn’t let himself hook up with the crew. The two quickly became the talk of the crew as they cuddled and made out underneath a towel on deck — especially given that Gary is Sydney’s manager. “It’s gonna be drama,†said Colin Macrae, chief engineer and Gary’s friend, in a confessional. “I’m looking forward to it.†By 1 a.m., with the rest of the crew asleep, Gary and Sydney snuck into a guest cabin to avoid Gary’s roommate, Captain Glenn Shepard. “I definitely think we should both get naked,†Gary said, as Sydney closed the door on the camera crew and sealed the deal on what might be the quickest cast hookup to ever materialize on Below Deck.
But will it actually be a one-night stand, like Gary told Sydney? “Gary and I haven’t really talked since we slept in the same cabin together,†Sydney says in the preview for next week’s episode. Meanwhile, chief stew Daisy Kelliher looks mad about the guest-cabin shenanigans during an all-crew meeting. We know another chief stew she could talk to about that …