The very first charter got off to a rough start on the Season 8 premiere of Below Deck. During the Monday, Nov. 2, episode, Captain Lee Rosbach invited a whole new crew (other than returning bosun Eddie Lucas) onto his yacht, and more than a few of them had a hard time keeping up — especially when their first clients clambered on board with particularly high expectations. This show is always full of messiness, hookups, and melt-downs, and the promo for the rest of the season promised plenty of all three, but there were more than a few moments that, off the bat, had us saying, “Eeesh. That’s not going to end well.”

Some of the ominous moments had a near-immediate payoff, but others I suspect we won’t see implode until later in the season. So what will likely go wrong? Here are the top troublesome happenings that caught my eye when the Season 8 crew stepped into the limelight.

TBH, the Crew Arrivals Didn’t Go Great

An accidental fall saw Captain Lee in the hospital when all of his crew showed up, including bosun Eddie. While he had recovered enough to return to the ship before they set sail for their first chapter, the complete lack of leadership on the yacht led to more than a few awkward moments — and seemed to foretell similar issues throughout the season.

When chief steward Francesca Rubi showed up a few minutes later, she was also left to wander around the ship without direction until she finally found someone. “Where is everybody?” she asked as she explored all the different cabins on board. Repeat with all the new deck hands and stewards. Elizabeth Frankini even declared the yacht a “ghost boat” when she first showed up.

Haunted by the Ghosts of Hookups Future

Right off the bat, some of the new crew hinted that they’re ready for this charter to end up a mess of relationship wreckage. As soon as James Hough laid eyes on Francesca, he was taken. “Francesca, chief stew… I wouldn’t kick her out of bed,” he told the cameras.

Later on, he revealed he was more interested in partying than doing his job, and, like, relatable, but we think he actually means to follow through on that priority breakdown rather than just daydreaming about his ideal life. “I will work hard, but I’ll toe the line,” he said. “I’ll see what I can get away with.”

Elizabeth also promised to turn this yacht into a heartbreak hotel. Hinting that her love life and work relationships have had more than a little overlap in the past, she expressed her sincere hopes that she would like this to be the first yacht where she doesn’t fall in love with somebody. Yikes.

Hooking up amongst the crew is one thing, but hooking up with the guests is a whole other issue — and it seemed like that may be on the menu for some of the guys, too. The guests were predictably flirty (after all, they’re here for a good time), but the deck hands seemed more than a little tempted to take them up on those offers. The boys couldn’t stop chatting about how they wanted to hookup with the birthday girl.

The Newbies Are Total No-Gos

Eddie said it best the second newcomer Shane Coopersmith admitted he had pretty much no experience in the white glove yachting world: “Fuck.” While he tried to keep his spirits up while talking to his employee directly, encouraging him to just be honest when he didn’t know how to do something, this work relationship seemed headed for disaster almost immediately. After Eddie gave his little pep talk, Shane was like, “Great! Can do! Now what!” Not exactly promising.

Things only seemed to get worse the next morning when Shane started his day by meditating and stretching as everyone else around him bustled around to get the boat ready for their first clients. Nobody seemed particularly upset about it (yet). In fact, Captain Lee simply dismissed him as a young kid. However, we bet that behavior is going to get old and fast.

Isabelle “Izzy” Wouters isn’t new to the yacht life, but she hasn’t worked in service as much as previous stewards had. Though she touted experience both on deck and with clients, including nannying, she didn’t seem ready to have to baby grown adults. She also didn’t seem ready to promptly serve adults in general. When called to make Captain Lee’s breakfast on the first day (a simple bowl of cereal and coffee, for the record), it took her a whopping 32 minutes.

Things only got worse once their guests were actually on board. Not only did she take her time making the espresso so Francesca could whip up some espresso martinis, she also allowed the primary guest to step in and help make cocktails, which seems like it should be the first harbinger of a nuclear disaster on boat life. Even then, she couldn’t help regretting her decision to work as a steward. On day one, she was already complaining about the “extra AF guests and this extra AF chief stew.”

Smash That Panic Button

There were also a few moments where things seemed to just immediately go off the rails — and though that was thanks to the guest behavior, it did set the tone. When the partygoers were having a blast jumping off the boat and blasting around on their jet skis, the panic was clear in crew members’ voices as they urged their clients to be careful. “Kill the engines!” they begged. “You’ve got people in the water!”

Luckily, no one got hurt (yet), but someone did go overboard. “I’m too old for this shit,” Eddie said in a confessional approximately 30 seconds before he hit the water. While trying to get one of the jet skis back under control and on the boat, he took an unexpected dip in the ocean, and he was absolutely pissed. "Dude, get off me, get off me," he told one of the other guys as they helped haul him back on board.

Also, There’s That Whole Coronavirus Crisis

The charter kicked off in mid-February, which means there’s about a one month-long ticking clock until shit hits the fan in regards to a global pandemic. The first hint of things hitting close to home came when Avery Russell had to leave the boat. Though he was Eddie and Captain Lee’s most reliable deck hand, a family emergency had him rushing off to try and see his family after his grandmother fell ill.

More than a few viewers picked up on the fact that this was a story that would come to be all too familiar. While Avery hasn’t publicly shared what happened with his grandmother’s illness, his “we thought she had the flu at first, but it I guess wasn't” explanation had fans of the show rushing to google, “Avery Below Deck grandma COVID.” The promo promises this won’t be the first or last hint we hear about future issues larger than any late espresso martini.

Images: Screenshots from Bravo