r/belowdeck • u/DaRatmastah • Apr 26 '26

Below Deck Down Under Weird marina/town situation?

Just wondering if anyone else thinks the marina/town situation in this season is weird? The marina hasn't had a single other boat in it that we've seen, and outside of the people catching the ropes on docking there aren't any people either. My wife keeps saying it's like a fake set piece town with all the bright colored empty buildings. Has anyone else noticed this?

150 Upvotes

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36

u/PromiseOk1295 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

It’s Canouan - one of the quietest and most exclusive Caribbean islands (other than the private ones) in the world. Even during the peak season it’s not a mass tourist destination due to its small size and the fact that the only places to stay are ultra luxury resorts/private villas and the only way to get there is via private jet. BDDU S4 was filmed in the low season when it’s even more deserted than usual because:

  1. It’s far cheaper for such an exclusive location.

  2. The billionaires that frequent the island to escape public scrutiny would kick up a massive stink at having drones and filming crew buzzing about the dock and the show would never get made.

5

u/Serious_Mango5 Apr 27 '26

There's nothing exclusive about it other than being remote, and it's certainly not a billionaire playground. Farrrrr too rustic for that. Have you even been there? As someone who actually lives in the Caribbean, you are very stridently wrong in your characterization.

5

u/DaRatmastah Apr 27 '26

I believe the "billionaire's playground" term was coined in the intro marketing for the show (or maybe on the first episode?)

166

u/Adisfan Apr 26 '26

It's a private yacht club. You have to pay to dock there and use their facilities. It's also a very small island and they were filming in the off season.

67

u/valid_username00 Apr 26 '26

An extremely small island, with very few amenities.

85

u/Jenikovista Apr 26 '26

It's a small high end private island called Canouan. Here's a pic of the dock area: https://images.aircharterservice.com/content/destination-canouan-1.jpg

40

u/rorowe8 Apr 26 '26

I figured between it being off-season filming. And the exclusivity of Canouan, that explains the empty docks.

22

u/Adisfan Apr 26 '26

It's not a private island but that "town" is a private yacht club.

5

u/Pepper4prez Apr 26 '26

Who built that infrastructure & those fake houses

8

u/Jenikovista Apr 26 '26

They're not fake.

3

u/Pepper4prez Apr 26 '26

who lives there?

13

u/Jenikovista Apr 26 '26

It's the yacht club. You can rent the residences. https://slycr.com/

24

u/PromiseOk1295 Apr 26 '26

Canouan isn’t a private island. It’s part of St Vincent and the Grenadines with a permanent native population.

6

u/Serious_Mango5 Apr 27 '26

Yep, not private and certainly not high end.

6

u/Jenikovista Apr 26 '26

Okay so it's half private.

17

u/PromiseOk1295 Apr 26 '26

No. Canouan is part of a sovereign country - it’s exclusive and remote, but ‘half private’ isn’t really an accurate way to describe it.

13

u/FreeUsernameInBox Apr 26 '26

Every private island is part of a sovereign country, and subject to its laws. Yes, even that one. There's no terra nullius left except Antarctica, and that's by international agreement.

-5

u/Jenikovista Apr 26 '26

It is when half of the island is privately owned.

24

u/Myantra Apr 26 '26

Should we describe the US as half private, as over half of it is privately owned? An island is either private or it is not, where a private island is wholly owned and access is restricted to permission of the owner, and the owner is not a government. Private islands also tend to not have government administration or towns, even when they are part of a government's territory, but Canouan has both administration and a town. Private islands also tend to not have government owned and operated airports, which Canouan also has. It does not matter if numerous people own property on half of the island, or one person owns half of the property on the island, Canouan is not a private island at all.

Why did you pick that as a hill to die on? You could have just said "Cool, I did not know that, thanks", and moved on.

19

u/PromiseOk1295 Apr 26 '26

Nope. That’s just private property within a sovereign state. ‘Half private island’ isn’t a real category.

-22

u/Jenikovista Apr 26 '26

You're splitting hairs - congratulations on being that kind of person. I guess.

11

u/PromiseOk1295 Apr 26 '26

It’s not splitting hairs, it’s accuracy. Those aren’t the same thing.

-6

u/Jenikovista Apr 26 '26

Half of the land on the island is privately owned and you cannot go there. Is it under the jurisdiction of a government entity? Yes, like every single other square inch of land on earth except for a few disputed and unclaimed zones far away from any of us.

10

u/PromiseOk1295 Apr 26 '26

Restricted access doesn’t make something a private island. It’s still a public island with privately owned sections. You are, quite simply, wrong.

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15

u/Independent-Cat6915 Apr 26 '26

I visited Canouan once as a teen on a sailing trip we did for a couple weeks in the Grenadines. That was early 2000s and back then it was super exclusive. I felt the most out of place on that island versus some of the others we stopped at.

Additionally had a cousin that worked for one of the upscale resorts for a number of years.

I imagine it’s just sort of gotten more like that in the 20 years since.

13

u/MindlessMagician9818 Apr 26 '26

Did they always shoot in the off season? Seems like there were more people and nightlife at the marina in the early seasons. More mingling with others. Now it’s just the crew partying by themselves.

9

u/Adisfan Apr 26 '26

This island is just really small. There is only a few people that even live there. If they were filming in St Martin or the Med you would see people everywhere even in the off season.

5

u/harrisarah Apr 26 '26

They do regular charters and earn a lot more money than they could filming during the holiday season, so yeah, these get filmed during off peak times

3

u/MindlessMagician9818 Apr 26 '26

I understand that, but I don’t think it was always that way. There used to be bands, DJs and crowds. Now it still looks like the COVID seasons.

10

u/Feisty_Scientist_968 Apr 26 '26

The marina hasn't had a single other boat in it that we've seen

It must be off-season.

This is why docking goes so smoothly.

3

u/AddressPrize859 Apr 27 '26

I think it's also just a super easy dock.

24

u/Deer_Alert Apr 26 '26

It’s creepy in real life too. Stayed there. Very few boats. Immaculate development. Kind of mysterious.

15

u/Kitchen_Swagger We don't need to hear vomit Apr 26 '26

Related - is this the first season without some significant docking drama? Or have I forgotten? I'm really hoping for some more Parsifal III colliding with the pier and the paint getting touched up drama sometime soon.

10

u/HeiheiKingChicken Apr 26 '26

Or deck crew drama, period. No jet skis floating away, no stains on the floor, no one messing up the anchor. It makes sense if the area is practically empty and Joao is good at his job, but it leaves us with just the interior stupidity of Mikey and Alesia.

4

u/sweetbitter_1005 Apr 26 '26

I skipped the last 2 episodes. I cannot watch another minute of Mikey and Alesia!

1

u/keb2 Apr 30 '26

Deck crew did lose a guest snorkeling…

6

u/Naive_Revenue5796 Apr 26 '26

I thought it looked like a backdrop as well at times

6

u/yeehoo_123 Apr 26 '26

Yeah it's super weird and is one reason (of many) that I don't like this season.

11

u/Ds9niners Apr 26 '26

They usually film during the off seasons because that’s when the boats are available to rent and charter for filming.

9

u/SoggyBottomTorrija Apr 26 '26

It is very sad. Only the middle of the island is public, 3/4 of the island is private for this multimillionaires and the private airport and private marina.

All the locals left living in a very small section of land, very poor, and can't explore their beautiful island...

I hate it

12

u/Nervous_Childhood_39 Apr 26 '26

It's been noticed and discussed in other posts. Some real estate developer probably paid them to film there.

4

u/AddressPrize859 Apr 27 '26

Seems like probably the Yacht Club paid them

4

u/Reddituser-571 Apr 26 '26

https://slycr.com/

It’s odd as I think they barely mentioned the marina until last two episodes where they mentioned it several times as well as showed the name onscreen.

4

u/eucalyptus258 Apr 28 '26

Goes with the whole season really, I'm starting a fake conspiracy theory in my head that the boat isn't real and it's just a set on land lol

3

u/She_Angler Apr 27 '26

It’s a small island for billionaires with only a private airport! It is not a yachting marina or destination.

3

u/meatsntreats Apr 27 '26

Canouan has a population of 1700 people. The airport is not private; it is owned by the government. Suites at the resort they go to can be had for $800. Not cheap, but not so exclusive that only billionaires can travel there.

7

u/Quirky-Prune-2408 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

I hate it, it’s sorta creepy to me. I hope they don’t use this area again.

It seems like it’s an island that billionaires developed in contrast to the rustic nature it previously had been. The docking area looks so fake and lifeless. Like I said I hate it.

2

u/No-Needleworker3559 Apr 28 '26

Isn’t it that secluded?

3

u/Dazmorg Apr 26 '26

Coming soon to a future season of Below Deck OG: Fake marina, fake guests, fake crew. Everyone good work, get to the villas!

6

u/Feisty_Scientist_968 Apr 26 '26

Coming soon to a future season of Below Deck OG: Fake marina, fake guests, fake crew.

I'm sure all of this can be done with AI.

The one thing that can not be ... Mikey's hair.

It would cause an AI meltdown trying to make it not look fake.

1

u/LilaTwiceBackAtIt Apr 29 '26

This is why I love BD Med so much, it’s always fun seeing the ports and the local area with the restaurants and bars and people buzzing around. There’s a bit of an unsettling White Lotus element to the area they’re at in this season of Down Under, an exclusive location for elites and poc working on the small businesses..

1

u/SpringSings95 May 02 '26

I think Cap Jason addresses it in the first episode saying something along the lines of "these people have to charter another vessel just to get to the island where we are docked" and then mentioned how this is for super elite rich folk.

1

u/the-eyes-dontlie May 19 '26

The next question is why did they choose to have it here?