Welcome to Below Deck Mediterranean Season 9 Episode 12 Recap! In this week’s episode, “The Perfect Storm,” Joe cancels his date with Ellie. Bri hits the brakes when she realizes he’s just playing with both of them, and Nathan goes rock climbing with Gael. There’s a leak in the forward crew cabin as a huge Medicane storm keeps the boat stuck at the dock. Here are some of the highlights from Below Deck Med Season 9 Episode 12.

Joe Bradley cancels date with Elena Dubiach on Below Deck Mediterranean

Picking up where we left off last week, Joe explains to Ellie that he really doesn’t want to go out with her, even though he already said yes.

“The pressure is just too great,” he explains. “I don’t want to go out.”

Although she says she just wanted to get to know him better, she assures Joe that everything is fine and they don’t have to go out.

Phew! Joe is relieved, but it remains to be seen how Ellie will deal with this unexpected disappointment.

After Joe leaves her cabin, Ellie interviews, “He liked me enough to make out with me a few days ago. But now you don’t like me enough to get to know me as a person and talk to me?”

“I can understand why some spiders eat their partners after mating,” she adds.

After hearing Joe explain his feelings to Nathan, Gael says, “Joe is a little idiot. He picks what he wants, when he wants it, without considering how it affects the girls. It’s just not nice anymore. I’m losing respect for Joe in that regard.”

Surprisingly, Bri is also on Ellie’s side. “I’m not surprised that Joe said no (to the date),” she says. “But he should have said no first, instead of yes. I feel sorry for Ellie. That’s what annoys me: He starts something, but he never finishes it.”

Bri Muller recognizes Joe Bradley’s true face

Ellie and Bri meet after dinner. Bri apologizes “for the whole thing with Joe.”

“To be honest, he really hurt my feelings today,” Ellie replies.

“He plays with both of us,” says Bri. “I think he likes to chase.” Bri calls him “a flea” who hops back and forth but doesn’t accomplish anything.

But when Bri goes to the bathroom, Joe follows her and starts “chasing” her again. “Hellooooooo!” he says flirtatiously.

“Oh God!” Bri mutters to herself, sounding really drunk.

“Why did your face get so serious when you saw me?” Joe asks her.

“You’ve chosen a side,” she says. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“I only give you my eyes,” he flirts, “because you give Me those eyes, man. And you know how to handle those eyes.”

“Fuck off,” she replies. “I really want to make out with you.”

So he goes into the bathroom stall with her and you can hear him saying, “Find a position. Pull up your damn skirt.” They forgot they have microphones and we can hear everything.

When he claims he doesn’t know what he’s doing, Bri adds, “Then I’ll make the decision if you don’t know. I won’t let you. Seriously. If you can’t be a man, then I will be.” And with that, she throws him out of her bathroom stall. Good job, Bri.

“Joe is not good for me in every way,” Bri says in an interview. “He reinforces my impulsiveness. He doesn’t make me a good person.”

When it’s time to return to the boat, Joe and Bri are sitting at opposite ends of the van’s bench seat. She’s as far away from him as she can get.

“Bri, I’m sorry,” says Joe.

“Whatever,” she replies as he helps her out of the van.

Nathan goes on a date

After dinner, Nathan finally makes his first move on Gael. He asks if she wants to “get off the boat and just do something fun tomorrow.”

“Can we do that?” she asks. He says he will ask Iain for permission.

While they’re talking, I can’t take my eyes off the Acropolis in the background, all lit up at night. It’s beautiful!

The next morning, Nathan asks Captain Sandy if he could get permission to take Gael off the boat in the afternoon “to do a little activity.” “I was enjoying her company, so I thought it would be nice if we could get off the boat and distract ourselves a little.”

Sandy is a champion of love because she says without hesitation: “Yes, of course,” she smiles. “Have fun. As long as the work gets done.”

Later that afternoon they go to a climbing facility. Nathan suddenly has a fear of heights, but Gael is a natural. She climbs the wall and abseils down without any problems.

They have a wonderful time and return to the boat happily.

Water absorption

At the preference meeting for the next charter, Sandy tells Aesha, Jono and Iain that the weather will be bad tomorrow. They will not be able to leave the dock for at least the first day. The wind will be over 40 knots.

“In the US, we would call it a hurricane,” Sandy says in an interview. “Since we are in the Mediterranean, we call it a ‘medicane’. Strong winds, lots of rain.” She hopes that the weather will clear quickly and that they can leave the dock on the second day.

Just as supplies arrive, it starts to rain heavily. When Sandy is down in the crew’s mess, she hears water dripping. It turns out it’s in the forward cabin (I thought she was going to get that fixed?).

Somehow, Sandy figures out that the water is coming from the bosun’s locker, which is located directly above the forward cabin. When she looks, she realizes, “We’re taking on water.”

If the boat takes on too much water, it could sink. “We can’t go out to sea if we’re taking on water,” she says.

Apparently the boatswain’s locker is full of water. Sandy radios the chief engineer and tells him that all windows and doors are closed, as is the hatch. She doesn’t know where the water is coming from. He says he’ll be right there.

He discovers that a plug has popped off a water pipe and water is leaking out. The good news is that they finally figured out why the front cabin is leaking. Sandy pulls out the wet mattress and says they should get some fans in the cabin to dry it out.

Water, water everywhere on Below Deck Mediterranean

Since they can’t leave the port, Jono plans a really fancy meal to distract the guests. As they enjoy their snacks and drinks at the bar, Sandy gives them the bad news that they won’t be leaving the port today.

“You would hate me and fear for your life,” she tells them.

To avoid leaving the dock, Aesha plans to take them to one of Athens’ oldest wineries for a wine tasting, 17 kilometers away. Will they make it in the pouring rain?

As the guests leave for the wine tasting with Aesha, Sandy checks the weather again. “30 inches of rain today?” she asks. What?! Is that even possible? I live in California. We don’t get that much rain in a year.

While the guests are rethinking their trip to the winery and the deck crew is desperately trying to save the deck cushions from the rain, an alarm suddenly goes off.

“I think we have another leak,” says Sandy, dismayed. “Oh, that’s bad.”

She sends Iain to check that the front cabin is still sealed. He climbs up into the infrastructure. We can’t see him, but we can hear him cursing: “Oh, damn it!”

Whatever it is, it can’t be anything good. But we won’t know until next week, because they’re letting us down. Damn it, show!

“Below Deck Mediterranean” airs Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo.

TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK OF BELOW DECK MEDITERRANEAN SEASON 9, EPISODE 12? DO YOU THINK TECHNOLOGY CAN FIX THE LEAK AND SAVE THE CHARTER?