Below Deck: The Bitter Fallout Between Captain Sandy And Captain Lee Fully Explained

"Below Deck" drama is usually reserved for the crew and charter guests, but it seems not even Captain Sandy Yawn and Captain Lee Rosbach can avoid getting caught in shady exchanges. It was smooth sailing between the two helm leaders for years and they initially had nothing but nice words to say about each other. After Ashton Pienaar's horrifying accident during "Below Deck" Season 6, Yawn sympathized with her colleague. "My reaction was I knew exactly how Captain Lee felt. He probably wanted to drop to his knees, just the thought of killing someone. It wasn't his fault," she shared on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen."

Rosbach also gave Yawn props for how far she got in her yachting career. "Because she's had to endure a lot of things because she's a female captain in a male-dominated industry. And so, it's like, I don't know what she's gone through, but I try to put myself in that situation," he stated, per Bravo. When Yawn stepped in for Lee during Season 10 after he was experiencing health issues, the "Below Deck" OG tweeted, "Capt Sandy came in an [sic] bailed me out in a tough situation and I appreciate her efforts." However, things soon turned salty between Rosbach and Yawn after he didn't agree with how she handled his crew.

When Captain Lee Rosbach is displeased, he's not one to keep quiet about it. During "Below Deck" Season 10, while Captain Sandy Yawn took over duties, she and the rest of the crew had to deal with a very difficult Camille Lamb. As a stew and deckhand, she was completing double duty but failed to perform basic tasks and even brazenly drank champagne during work hours. The chief stew, Fraser Olender, had no choice but to go to Yawn with his complaints and Lamb was ultimately fired. Following the episode, Rosbach tweeted, "So I found out after the fact that she fired one of my crew, not before. Ok?"

After "Below Deck" fans responded to his calling out Yawn publicly, he followed up with another tweet: "Had I been replacing Capt Sandy on her boat temporarily and felt the necessity to fire one of her crew, I would have called her first to let her know what I was doing and why. I agree with her decision, just not how she went about it." When a fan called Rosbach out on his disgruntled tweets, he replied that he wasn't "mad" and added, "I wasn't wanting her to ask for my approval, just letting me know what she was doing and why. Not second guessing her decision at all. I agree with it." Of course, Yawn couldn't stay silent amid all the drama and she shot back with her own response.

Captain Lee Rosbach's public criticism of Captain Sandy Yawn did not go unnoticed by the "Below Deck Mediterranean" star and she seemingly hit back with a tweet of her own. "If someone treats you bad, just remember that there is something wrong with them, not you. Normal people don't go around destroying other people," she shared. In an interview with Us Weekly, Yawn stated, "The reality is when you're on a boat and someone's sick in the hospital, as a captain you're not gonna call them up and say, 'Can I fire someone?' You don't need permission. You're actually in command." She revealed that she had called him after the firing and that captains "have each other's back."

However, Yawn does not feel like Rosbach has her back. After her debacle with "Below Deck Med" Season 8 bosun Ruan Irving's botched paperwork causing him to leave the boat, Lee stated on his "Salty with Captain Lee" podcast, "As I've said in the past, the only person who's responsible for everything that happens on that vessel is the captain. Good, bad, right, wrong, it doesn't make any goddamn difference. The captain is responsible."

Following his podcast, Yawn told TV Insider, "Captain Lee from day one has never supported me. I think he is a man in a man's world who doesn't like a woman being a captain, to be honest." Looks like trouble on the high seas for these two Bravolebrities!