Below Deck: Captain Sandy Yawn Reveals She Almost Fired Fraser Olender, Shares Her Regret About Him

Credit: Laurent Bassett/Bravo

Captain Sandy Yawn has fired not one but two interior crew members during her time filling in for Captain Lee Rosbach on season 10 of Below Deck.

It seems no one was safe from the chopping block as Sandy is revealing that she almost added chief stew Fraser Olender to her list of dearly departed St. David staff.

Captain Sandy claims she saw Fraser struggling and “afraid” in his first-ever leadership role and wasn’t sure if he had the gumption to carry his team through the season.

“There was a moment [where I considered firing him]. Absolutely. Because listen the walls are thin and [it is important to not] jump on their bandwagon. Change that narrative. That’s your role as the superior here,” Captain Sandy recently told Us Weekly. “You’re responsible for your team. So, I didn’t go to the [interior] team members [with my issues]. I went to the chief stew and said, ‘This isn’t happening. You hired them. Fix it.’”

That’s not to say the Below Deck Mediterranean captain wouldn’t have helped Fraser. According to Sandy, all he needed to do was ask for help.

“Like, if you need help, ask me. But until then, I stay out of it. I will only help if I see that the client is suffering in service. If I see something going wrong or there’s disharmony on board in my eyes — that’s when I step in,” Captain Sandy told the outlet.

Captain Sandy did end up confronting Fraser about what she assumed was his inability to lead the interior crew, going as far as to refer to Fraser as a “cancer” on the boat.

The comment struck a deep chord with Fraser who, like Captain Sandy, has a personal connection to the debilitating disease. Looking back, Captain Sandy says she regrets her choice of words.

“I had cancer, and I will say this — I should have chosen different words,” Sandy confessed. “I’ve been a captain for many years [and] those were the terms we used. So [in terms of] evolving, I would change my terminology for sure. [It was a] bad choice of words.”

Fraser has previously reacted to Captain Sandy’s criticism and claimed he had never felt “pure rage” or been “more sickened by a captain in [his] entire life.”

However, the pair have seemingly mended their relationship since Below Deck wrapped filming.

“[Captain Sandy] taught me a lot about myself and I think at the end of the season [you’ll] understand what I mean by that,” Fraser previously told the outlet.

Below Deck airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. EST on Bravo.