Yachting! Plus Travel Tips, Adventures From Below Deck's Captain Kerry

Wonder what luxury at sea really takes when the cameras stop rolling? We sit with Captain Kerry Titheradge from Bravo’s Below Deck, a leader trusted with 300-foot vessels and volatile reality TV moments.

We unpack the true costs of chartering a superyacht, why five-star hotel service can’t match a dialed-in crew at sea, and how leadership—not boat handling—is the captain’s hardest job.

We get a candid look at production rhythms, safety priorities, and the moment a cameraman helped avert disaster. 

Then we slip into adventure mode: Cappadocia’s sunrise balloons, Fethiye’s paragliding cliffs, Dubrovnik’s stone ramparts, Kotor’s dramatic bay, and Australia’s trifecta of the Great Barrier Reef, the Outback, and Barossa Valley vineyards where kangaroos hop between rows. Back in Florida, Kerry chases quiet flight on an e-foil, skimming above water in search of small, perfect moments.

That ethos flows into Yachting Concepts, his company guiding new owners—especially under 100 feet. Buying a yacht is the easy part; stewardship is the real voyage. 

Kerry closes with a Maldives memory threaded through Middle Eastern terminals alive with peaceful diversity, coral gardens facing climate pressures, and a solo ascent of the Eiffel Tower on the way home.

If you enjoyed this sea-level view of luxury, leadership, and adventure, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more curious travelers can find us. 

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Our guest, Captain Kerry Titheradge, CEO of Yachting Concepts, appeared for three years on Bravo TV's popular reality show Below Deck.

Podcast host Lea Lane has traveled to over 100 countries, and has written nine books, including the award-winning Places I Remember  (Kirkus Reviews star rating, and  'one of the top 100 Indie books of  the year'). She has contributed to dozens of guidebooks and has written thousands of travel articles.
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Our award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane, has produced over 125 travel episodes! New episodes drop on the first Tuesday of the month, on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to podcasts. All episodes are also on her website: placesirememberlealane.com
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Travel vlogs of featured  podcasts-- with video and graphics -- now also drop on YouTube.  

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Captain Kerry Of Below Deck
• 1:30 From Blue-Collar Roots To The Sea
• 3:30 First Breaks And Falling For Boats
• 7:16 Landing The Bravo Captain Role
• 9:39 How Guests And Tips Actually Work
• 13:02 Cameras On Board And Safety Moments
• 16:09 What Yacht Chartering Really Costs
• 19:44 Managing Crew And Tough Personalities

Transcript

Meet Captain Kerry Of Below Deck

Lea Lane 0:26

Do you want to know more about yachting? Captain Carrie Titheradge, the charismatic and firm but fair captain on Bravo TV's hit reality series Below Deck, is known for his experience, calm demeanor, and high standards for his crew. On this episode of Places I Remember, we'll be finding out more from him about traveling on the water, favorite destinations, and his newest venture as CEO of Yachting Concepts. Welcome, Captain Kerry, to Places I Remember.

Captain Kerry 0:55

G'day, how are you doing?

From Blue-Collar Roots To The Sea

Lea Lane 0:56

I'm doing great. I'm a big fan of Below Deck. In fact, we already talked with Chief Stew Aesha Scott on episode 109. But I want to ask you, how did you get into yachting and what's your experience on the water besides being on below deck?

Captain Kerry 1:11

Oh boy. So I come from a blue-collar family. All my family are tradespeople. So I was destined to also be a tradesperson. Father's a builder, my granddad's a builder, you know, we have welders in the family. So I decided the path of being electrician, thinking that my father couldn't know everything about that, but he did as well. I ended up at a certain point in my life where the company I work for had closed down and I needed to find a job. And I just banged every door down a street. Can I have a job? I'll do anything. Just show me. And I did a bunch of different jobs. And I ended up working at a full-service gas station. (Really?) And this is back where you're dipping the oil, checking the tire pressure, putting water in the tank there. I was doing that for a bit, and it wasn't making me my forever job. And a job popped up to be a deck hand on a parasailing boat. (Wow.) I was a very shy kid back in those days. I actually had nice blonde hair, sunbleached.

Lea Lane 2:12

Really? I never saw that.

First Breaks And Falling For Boats

Captain Kerry 2:15

Yeah, you flick through my Instagram enough, you'll find some pictures of it. I grew up in the Upback. So, you know, we we lived in this coastal town for a couple of years, and I was never destined, I didn't think, to be on the water. No, not in that in that scope. And I went out and everybody was happy. All the customers wanted to pay, and it was a nice change because when you're an electrician or when you're at the gas station, no one wants to pay you. We went out for an hour, we came back, and they said, Look, we'll give you a call. Thanks for trying out for the job. And I loved it so much. I kept inventing jobs so I wouldn't leave. So I asked, could I rinse the boat down? They said, Yes, thank you. We'll call you. Can I dry the boat? Thank you. We'll call you. Can I polish a stainless? Thank you. Look, I just wouldn't leave. So that's how I started on the on boats. The way I got into yachting is I had applied for a job to actually drive a large car ferry in Australia. And little to my knowledge, the owner of that company had a friend in Canada, a fellow Australian, that needed some crew. So where I didn't get the job on the ferry in Brisbane, I got the job in Canada on a yacht.

Lea Lane 3:25

Oh wow. And then it all began there.

Captain Kerry 3:28

It all began there. 21 years ago, that was. That was 2004.

Lea Lane 3:32

Wow. Well, how do you get to be chosen to be a captain on the Bravo series? And how does the rest of the crew get chosen for that?

Captain Kerry 3:39

Well, I guess they had to dig real deep on this one, right? A little. It was during COVID when it happened for me. There was a process, as much as Zoom interviews. And the funny thing was that it's during COVID, so we never saw each other. And I may have used a filter on Zoom to bring down a few of my fine lines. So when I actually got to uh Norway, they looked at me twice. They're like, You look a little different than the Zoom interview.

Lea Lane 4:05

But you put the hat on. Right. I guess everyone goes through the same thing, the crew as well. What about the guests? How are they chosen? Do they pay full price? I want to know.

Captain Kerry 4:17

The charter guests, they pay a reduced price of what it would typically cost, which I don't know the numbers on that because that's not my department. We've got them lining up to come through the door.

Lea Lane 4:27

I bet. How about tips? They're told what to, you know, the percentage to give you. I know some of them are cheap.

Captain Kerry 4:32

Yeah. I believe there's guidance, you know, on what because some people come on, they don't know how it works. I mean, most Americans should because that's our society, right? Is that we do that. It's just like anywhere, you know, you go to a nice restaurant and you might have a great meal, and the person beside you and that person doesn't sit well, and you do. It's one of those things. I've I never count the tips to be part of my salary. It's just an extra bonus.

Lea Lane 4:54

Right. I saw one episode where the crew was stiff edotally. The only time I saw that happen, which is pretty bad. Anyway, how do the cameras change the way the ship is run? We we don't see the cameras, but how many of them are around?

Captain Kerry 5:06

Around the vessel, there'll be like GoPros and that around the boat and some static cameras. Then there's actually cameramen and uh audio people running around, you know, the one-eyed monster. You know, when you hear them coming, you know, something exciting's about to happen because you know, I just do my job and they leave me alone. When I see them moving in a direction pretty quickly, I tend to go and have a look myself.

Lea Lane 5:27

Oh, really? Where do they sleep? I always wondered where do they sleep?

Lea Lane 5:35

with?

Captain Kerry 5:36

That stuff there's multiple crew changes for production, and overnight there's only one person on board, you know, all the cameras around the place and the microphones, and they have their own little camera, but that's typically quite late at night, and then the first crew change of the camera crew is early in the morning, so they don't hinder us doing what we need to do. I would hope not. I can't say invisible, but you just kind of get used to doing your thing.

Lea Lane 6:02

I saw one cameraman in one of the episodes help save a person's life, if you remember when it was very good because one of the crew got caught in a rope, and there the wall was broken, and it was very, very exciting and scary. (Yes, it ended well.) Let's get aspirational here and talk about chartering a yacht if someone wants to do it. What does it entail? How much does it cost typically? What are we talking about? We see these guests come on, but how could one afford this?

Landing The Bravo Captain Role

Captain Kerry 6:30

I guess some people have got a very good 401k. I don't know. A 160-foot vessel, which is a similar size boat, you're probably gonna pay about $250,000, $300,000 per week. And that is just for the yacht. So think of renting a car, all right? When you're in a car, you're gonna put fuel in it and you've got to park it as well. And then on top of that, you've got to get your own food. So you've got to pay for your restaurants. And when you charter a yacht, you actually pay for the crew food too. Oh my goodness. And then even before that happens, you're gonna transfer cash to the boat. So there's a percentage, it's called an APA, which is um I can't remember the acronym, but it's like advanced payment. So we have money to go out and get your champagne and all the good things that you want to have. That one-week trip could quite easily double or triple.

Lea Lane 7:18

Yeah, and I can see why you want to give them a five-star experience or a seven-star experience.

Captain Kerry 7:23

Well, I tell my crew that the the level that we give, Four Seasons can't touch us. That's what yachting's about. There's no better service out there.

Lea Lane 7:32

Well, it's fun to watch. I'll keep watching. You said that the easiest part about being a captain is driving the boat. The hard part is the crew. Could you give us a few examples of the worst crew problems you've encountered and how you handled them?

Captain Kerry 7:45

Oh boy, that's the thing. What we need to think about, right, is you just get regular neighbors who have their own home and space not getting on from the same background. Can you imagine putting different crew from different age groups from different countries? So you live, eat, sleep, you can't get away from them. The biggest issues I have with my crew, other than the deck ends being distracted by the stewardesses, it's sometimes the other way around, is just crew not meeting eye to eye or people needing particular compassion for where they're at. That's the hardest thing. You don't get to see too much of it in the show, but I really find qualities in people that are very different that each other can appreciate and they can get on.

Lea Lane 8:23

Right. It's very interesting to watch it. The differences of people, differences below deck, above deck, it's plus the beautiful scenery since we love travel. You haven't had any terrible guest experiences. I know people jump into the water drunk and stuff like that, but I can't remember in your episodes what. (We had Kelly where I had to call the French police in to get her off the boat.

Captain Kerry 8:43

Yeah, she was probably the worst guest. I've never caught police to a boat before. Normally I'm trying to get the police away from the boat because of being too noisy.

Lea Lane 8:55

Drunk, right?

Captain Kerry 8:56

Yes, just a tad.

Lea Lane 8:57

Just a tad. Now you were a captain on a spin-off called Below Deck Adventure. That was only one season. I know you enjoy adventure travel. What are some of your favorite personal adventure places and experiences around the world? And what do you like to do in adventure?

Captain Kerry 9:13

So so I guess the first thing comes to mind is uh Turkey, and that is the ballooning in Cappadocia. Yeah. Absolutely incredible. It is it is mind-blowing. Like there's hundreds of balloons in the air at the same time on the sunrise, and then there is the paragliding near Fedier, which you you you're you're what two kilometers, I think you're like two thousand, two kilometers up, it's very high, and you're running off a cliff with a guy on your back and just like a wing above your head. So that's that's the first thing come to on my daily life here I live in South Florida and Palm Beach Gardens, and I mean today's a little more little chillier than it has been, but what last week it was 80 in winter in January, I had this thing called an e-foil, which is like it looks like kind of like a surfboard, but it has an underwater wing and it comes out of the water, so you glide out of the water. (Wow.) That is that is something that I really enjoy doing.

Lea Lane 10:17

I think I've seen that. You go way high up. Is that the one with yes?

Captain Kerry 10:21

Yeah, well, not the jet pack. This is you're about you know, you're about you know two to three feet out of the water.

Lea Lane 10:29

Interesting.

Captain Kerry 10:30

Um, and it'si an underwater wing, so you're you're hydrofoiling.

Lea Lane 10:33

Okay, interesting. Boy, lots of lots of stuff out there that I I'm learning about through to this wonderful podcast. Um uh what about world destinations? You've been around a bit. Any favorites you want to think about right now and tell us if maybe are they coastal or not?

Captain Kerry 10:55

Yeah, I mean, like what I think exotic, my first thought is Croatia and Dubrovnik. Yes, that's just amazing, and then you've got right next door Montenegro, you've got Kator. I think that's just gorgeous. Again, I I the coastal areas of Turkey is amazing. The the Bodrum all through that area.

Lea Lane 11:17

The history, I know you can rent very inexpensively there. The fishermen are a lineup along the harbor, and you can rent for the day, and and everybody can do that. That you can get out on that gorgeous water in a in a boat there.

Captain Kerry 11:32

It's it's absolutely amazing, and you know, it's the Mediterranean, and the history is so rich there. Like, like people don't realize that, and I didn't realize this, like Saint Christopher originated in Turkey. Yes. Um, and you can do a tour through there and you can check that out.

Lea Lane 11:48

I mean Santa Claus.

Captain Kerry 11:50

Yeah, exactly. Right.

Lea Lane 11:51

I know that's a good trivia question. I've I've won on that a few times.

Captain Kerry 11:54

He's come and the other thing that's quite amazing, too, is um the Virgin Mary is thought to have been buried there, and there's a place you can go and you can do your thing if that's your faith. And the coolest thing is the ancient city of the ancient city of Troy is in Turkey. So there's so much to see there.

Lea Lane 12:12

Yeah, I can see you love it there. Um, we have uh done episodes on Croatia and many of these areas, and I agree with you, it's it's gorgeous. It's got history, it's got all that coast stuff as well.

Captain Kerry 12:25

Yes.

Lea Lane 12:25

Um you're from Australia, so what about Australia? Where would you recommend if people were gonna go one time, let's say? What not to miss?

Cameras On Board And Safety Moments

Captain Kerry 12:33

It's such a big country. People don't realize that the land mass isn't that much less than the United States, right? Um, so you know, you know, the Great Barrier Reef, I think that's on everybody's list. They have to check that out. Um and you know, getting into the Upback, like, you know, get it there and get it the red dirt and the whole lot of nothing, I think, is is two amazing things. And then for those who who who don't mind a dabble in a nice glass of wine, uh the Barossa Valley in South Australia is the top three.

Lea Lane 13:02

Yeah, I like the kangaroos jumping around in the vineyards. I I I remember uh staying overnight and waking up to seeing kangaroos jumping among the vines, which is possible. I didn't know enjoying the grapes, but they were certainly the farmers don't like it. Right. It's just like you know, very cute for me to see it, right? Well, now that you're CEO of a company called Yacht Concepts, it's a new venture. How does being a ship captain convert to corporate management? What is yacht concepts?

Captain Kerry 13:37

Yeah, so the so the correction that's called yachting concepts.

Lea Lane 13:40

I'm sorry, yachting concepts.

Captain Kerry 13:42

And with yachting concepts, you know, I I started that that venture um because all yacht owners want the full experience. And there's an area of the market that doesn't get much attention, and that is the new yacht owner on under under 100 feet. And, you know, a lot of captains like myself, you know, I've run vessels up to 300 feet, and a 60-foot vessel where to that yacht owner is their pride and joy, the class of person they get to take care of it is on their way up. They don't have the same experience level. So we're bringing the experience that I bring to the market to boats that were the size of my tenders on some of my yachts.

Lea Lane 14:23

Right.

Captain Kerry 14:24

And the idea is to guide them through yacht ownership where it's very transparent and they can understand how things are. Because when you first buy a yacht, uh many people think buying the yacht was the expensive part. It's it's not, it's the maintenance, the plan, it's the crew management. And we've grown from starting there to doing refits and servicing some of the largest yachts in the world. So it's it's been very successful.

Lea Lane 14:50

That sounds great. How long have you been doing this?

Captain Kerry 14:52

So I actually created the company when I was filming Adventure.

Lea Lane 14:56

Oh, really? That's a few years ago.

Captain Kerry 14:58

Yeah, yeah, and we've grown from there.

Lea Lane 15:00

Oh, great. Well, if I ever get a yacht, I know where to go.

Captain Kerry 15:04

Yes, you do.

Lea Lane 15:05

And I know you. Okay, well, the name of the podcast is Places I Remember. So, Captain Carrie, would you please share a special travel memory with us?

Captain Kerry 15:16

Oh so just before I just just before I gave up yachting. So I got up for a period of time. I went through a divorce and I need to be home for my children. Um, the last destination I was at, it was on a 90-meter yacht in the Maldives.

Lea Lane 15:35

90 meters is translated to very large seed.

Captain Kerry 15:39

I think it's like 290 feet.

Lea Lane 15:41

Yeah, that's all.

Captain Kerry 15:43

Um it was in the Maldives, and it was a destination that I'd never planned, but I flew across to the Maldives, I flew through um the Middle East, and that in itself was just amazing. Like just seeing the culture, like seeing the different religions walking through this beautiful airport and everybody being at peace. To me, that just blew my mind. Seeing, seeing, you know, um a Muslim lady in in the full um outfit, and then next to that, seeing a Western woman in heels and a short skirt, and everyone was just cool. And and and then I get to the Maldives, and I got to see those amazing um uh accommodations on on the water out in the little piers, and I got to scuba dive in the Maldives.

Lea Lane 16:26

Oh boy, you were in one of those overwater, overwater bungalows where you got well.

Captain Kerry 16:31

I was on the yacht, which wasn't a bad thing to be at, but I could but I actually got to see it in person and then and dive the pristine waters of the Maldives. It was uh the whole experience there and back, and then on the way back, I flew through Paris and I was by myself, but I had to go up the awful tower, and everyone's big romantic, so I had to give myself a hug, and then uh I got back on the plane and I came back to Florida. It was amazing.

Lea Lane 16:55

How how long was this trip in in total?

Captain Kerry 16:58

So it was I was it was only about a month, yeah. So it was just yeah, it was a it was very brief.

Lea Lane 17:03

So you saw wonderful things of all kinds, the desert, the water, the great city of Paris. It sounds perfect, actually.

Captain Kerry 17:12

It did. It it really it really did. It was it was uh um I just now when you asked, it just popped into my head because I've been many places, not maybe not as many places as you've been, but I've been all through the Caribbean, um, through Australia, the Mediterranean, I mean both coasts of Africa. Um, and there's so many amazing places, it's very hard to pick just one.

Lea Lane 17:32

It is, but when they pop up, the memories pop up. That's what's so nice. You don't expect them sometimes, and they're there forever. So it's an investment when you travel, it's not just the trip itself.

Captain Kerry 17:43

Absolutely, I totally agree.

Lea Lane 17:45

I agree, and I'm thinking of that beautiful water in the Maldives. Is it is it still is the coral uh still okay? I mean, I know there are few places on earth where it hasn't been affected by climate change. What about there?

Captain Kerry 17:58

But no, I think I think it the corals take it taking hit everywhere, you know, just a one-degree change in the water is affecting the corals. Um the stag horns are pretty resilient, you know, they grow very fast. Um, but you know, when I was there, you know, just like the Great Barrier Reef, there's sections there that have been that you have climate change issues, and you also got the uh crownathorn starfish. So, you know, it was just amazing to be there and just the topography of the water and the marine life. I mean, was it as good as Australia? I'm a little biased, um, but it was an incredible experience.

Lea Lane 18:31

It was perfect.

Captain Kerry 18:33

Yes.

Lea Lane 18:33

So that's your memory. Thanks for that. It was terrific one. So, Captain Carrie Tetheradge, you've been captain of the yacht, an adventure traveler, and you're now CEO of Yachting Concepts. We enjoyed looking back on your travels, and I'm sure your skills will translate very well from boats to boardrooms in this next phase of your life. Thank you so much for joining us in Bombayage ahead.

Captain Kerry 18:56

Oh, thanks for having me. It was a fantastic one.

Lea Lane 18:58

Thank you.