It's no secret that Below Deck's Captain Kerry Titheradge runs a tight ship, and, following a series of on-the-job mistakes, bosun Caio Poltronieri is in danger of becoming the next yachtie to depart St. David.
Amid a lively five-day Caribbean charter in Season 12, Episode 3, Captain Kerry could no longer ignore the new deck crew leader's avoidable missteps and decided to sit him down for a blunt chat.
"I try to support my guys, but I have a lot of pressure on myself. I've gotta be straight up with the guy and let him know how important his job is and how much I rely on him. And that creates pressure," Captain Kerry explained in a confessional. "But there's a lot of schoolboy errors being made on things he should be already aware of. He needs to get his head in the game."
So, he radioed for Caio to come up to the wheelhouse, where he unpacked such issues as guests' luggage not making it aboard the first charter, as well as the inflatable banana boat that he'd just discovered floating away. Kerry had also just had a one-on-one with his bosun about relaying correct information after a miscommunication about a snorkeling site made the captain "look like a clown" to the guests.
"It shouldn't happen. We've gotta have communication on point," Captain Kerry told Caio during their sitdown. "It's not my job to think about everyone's job. But things keep piling up. And I need to know if you're up for this."
Caio, who is in charge of deckhands Jess Theron, Kyle Stillie, and Damo Yorg, replied, "I'm pretty sure I'm up for it," pointing out that having "three people under" him for the first time in his career had been "a challenge" and "a lot" to deal with. As he saw it, though, improving his performance would be "just a matter of time" along with "focusing on the small things."
After Kerry instructed him to "put pressure" on his team "to not make these schoolboy errors," the St. David captain admitted in a confessional, "I think Caio is over his head. … If he doesn't meet expectations, he's gone."
The Below Deck crew explains their issues with Caio Poltronieri
Earlier in Below Deck's June 16 episode, a self-described "starving" Jess confronted Caio about his management skills, namely his forgetting to send the crew on lunch breaks.
"You've gotta give us some breaks sometime. You need to think about those things," the lead deckhand vented in a confessional, before releasing a long sigh.
Damo, for his part, later added, "The break situation with the deck team is you don't know when you're gonna get one, how long it's gonna be, or how much notice you're gonna have. At the bare minimum, we just need to eat."
After he revealed to Jess that "Stillie's getting frustrated, too," she conceded that Caio is "always working," but "there's a bit of a standard that we're not really setting."
Jess repeated that she "can't be going to" Caio whenever she needs to eat, adding, "I will definitely speak to him. But if it doesn't change, then I’m gonna have to speak to Captain Kerry."
Who is Caio Poltronieri from Below Deck Season 12?
Elsewhere in Episode 3, Caio explained his role on St. David. "As the bosun, I’m the lead of the team, so everything relies on me," the Season 12 newcomer said, before sharing some biographical information.
"I worked hard to achieve that position," he said, noting that he grew up in Rio de Janeiro. "My first job on a yacht, I was a chef on a 27-meter. I didn't have any money when I started, but yachting changed my life, money-wise, and also with the experiences [and] traveling."
Caio also recognized the stark differences between his life and those of his friends back in Brazil who work in fields such as engineering, law, or medicine: "They're not moving around the globe. It's not a normal lifestyle for someone that grew up in Rio."
Outside of the yachting world, Caio's Below Deck bio states that music is both his special skill and favorite off-boat activity. Adding that he still enjoys traveling even when he's not working, Caio also listed Southeast Asia as his favorite destination, so far.
