Life as a Captain
Life may sound luxurious as a captain on a sailing yacht—especially when it’s filmed for a hit reality show—but despite how glamorous it all may seem, it’s more work than play.
Captain Glenn Shephard
“What we do is not for everyone. It’s hard,” Captain Glenn Shephard of Bravo’s Below Deck Sailing Yacht shared with iBestTravel. “My friends see my photos on social media and they think I have a great life and I’m like, ‘Go sleep in your walk-in closet for a month.’
“It’s give and take,” he added. “We love it; it’s the kind of people we are.”
Born in Montreal and now a seasoned traveler who has visited 50 countries, Shephard has starred in all three seasons of the Bravo show, the third of which is currently airing.
The Parsifal III
Along with a crew of nine aboard the 54-meter sailing yacht, the Parsifal III can comfortably house up to an additional 12 travelers for about $150,000 a week, according to broker site Worldwide Boat. Throughout his time in front of Bravo cameras, Shephard has taken Parsifal III through Greece, Croatia, and Spain.
“One of the nicest things [about Croatia] is it’s a long coast in the Eastern Mediterranean, but it has a lot of offshore islands, and all of those islands make it a very nice cruising area because they prevent any swell from the sea coming from the shore,” he explained. “You can always find a flat, calm place to enter.”
The calm areas, like Croatia, ensure that most of the time the boat is out to be relatively smooth. Shephard is fortunate to be resilient to seasickness but is no stranger to rocky waters as he’s crossed the Atlantic about 22 times.
“When you’re out there for that long—and we’re out there for two-to-three weeks crossing from Gibraltar to the Caribbean—your sea legs are so built-in that when you get on shore, it actually feels like the shore is moving around,” he observed.
Crew Dynamics
His sailing career began when he was 24 and backpacking through Rome when he met someone in need of a deckhand—proceeding to spend almost a year at sea. Fast forward, and Shephard is surrounded by a crew composed of a mix of stewardesses, led by a chief stew, engineers, and deckhands—all of whom report to him. While he usually has a say in the selection process for the show, the first time he meets the new crew is on camera, only about a day before a charter begins.
Despite the calm demeanor he’s known for, he confronted problems consistently. “A lot of people say I have a very laid-back way of doing my job,” he admitted. “That’s sort of how I manage the stress—unless it’s safety or something dangerous, I try not to lose my cool.”
Family on Board
In seasons one and two, Shephard is met with a brand new crew, allowing viewers to watch their dynamic as they work and live together unfold—a situation poised to create plenty of drama on the high seas. However, when it comes to working with the guests on board, the whole crew rallies as one team for a successful and safe trip.
“When something goes wrong on the boat, we don’t get to point a finger at somebody else and blame them… we are ultimately responsible,” Shephard emphasized.
When asked about the biggest secret of the Below Deck series (besides the fact that the camera crew doesn’t sleep on the ship), the captain noted that even though it looks like tensions and conflict play a huge part in the show, the crew becomes one big family. “Most good crew who are going to succeed in this industry have the ability to let stuff slide down their back and not take it too seriously,” he remarked. “In most cases, everyone loves each other; it’s like a sibling relationship; sometimes you get angry at them, but you always love them—they’re always family.”
As season 3 progresses, the captain expresses confidence in his crew—some of whom he’s previously worked with and hopes to continue collaborating with in the future. “It’s a great vibe on board; we’ve got great people. It’s so nice having the core group of Gary [King], Daisy [Kelliher], Colin [MacRae] back, and of course, Marcos [Spaziani] was such an amazing chef. If we do a fourth season, I’d love to have all those guys back.”
Below Deck Sailing Yacht airs every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on Bravo.
