Captain Lee Rosbach enters his true-crime era with Oxygen's 'Deadly Waters' (2024)

Captain Lee Rosbach is entering his true-crime era! After 10 seasons on Below Deck, the beloved reality TV star is branching out into uncharted territory with his new Oxygen series, Deadly Waters With Captain Lee. Consisting of 8 episodes, the show highlights cases with criminals who thought that being on the open water would help them get away with murder and other nefarious acts. Rosbach notes that adding the “element of water” to a traditional true crime series “changes everything.” “People think they know what’s coming,” said Rosbach. “Being on the water has the power to alter every aspect of the crime.”

Rosbach skillfully employs his matter-of-fact approach to storytelling to weave together all the horrifying and fascinating elements of these cases, but Mother Nature does play a supporting role. More often than not, Mother Nature ends up helping investigators solve their cases and bring the perpetrators to justice. “Mother Nature is going to do what Mother Nature is going to do,” said Rosbach wisely.

Take for instance, the tragic story of the Joel Cool, a sports fishing boat from Miami Beach, Florida. The crew of 4—the captain, his wife and two crew members—were hired under false pretenses to charter 2 men to the Bahamas. The two passengers promptly killed all four and hijacked their boat to go to Cuba. They failed because they didn’t take into consideration the amount of power and fuel it would take to run counter to the current of the Gulf Stream. When officials found the two perps floating in a life raft, they quickly realized that that the flimsy story the two men concocted was a lie. “You can’t win with Mother Nature,” said Rosbach. “She’s always going to extract her pound of flesh. Make no mistake about it.”

When asked if Rosbach considered himself a storyteller—a fact that all of his fans know to be true given his memoir, Running Against the Tide: True Tales from the Stud of the Sea—Rosbach graciously demurred. “There are so many things that Mother Nature is capable of doing to you that will affect you,” Rosbach said. “When you eventually relay the things that happen on the high seas to somebody else, they inevitably make for a good story.” With his ability to tell a gripping tale combined with his boating expertise, Rosbach is the perfect person to guide audiences through these gripping and tragic nautical crime cases.

DECIDER spoke to Rosbach over Zoom to discuss the series, the biggest mistake amateur boaters make, and what his beloved wife, Mary Anne, thinks of his latest creative endeavor.

DECIDER: Deadly Waters with Captain Lee is such a cool concept for a series. Have you always been a true crime fan?

CAPTAIN LEE ROSBACH: It’s not true crime, but the first crime series I ever got into was the first season of Law & Order. It might feel like that was a million years ago, but that’s what prompted my interest in the genre. It’s been interesting to be involved with a series like Deadly Waters, which delves into real crimes and allows audiences to be privy to a lot of information that hasn’t been available before. When you add the element of water into that, that just changes everything.

Would you say that having the series set around cases that are on the water—the open sea, lakes, rivers— is what really sets this show apart from other true crime shows?

Oh, absolutely. People will think they know what’s coming, but add in the water with tides and waves and currents and that will change everything. The water has the power to alter every aspect of the crime. The average individual who watches true crime doesn’t have the knowledge that the experts in the US Coast Guard or various maritime departments do. There are twists that most audiences don’t see coming, thanks to Mother Nature.

The show explores the curious case of the Joe Cool, the tragedy that involved 4 crew members of the sports fishing boat disappearing. The only 2 survivors where the passengers found floating in a raft nearby who claimed that the others had been murdered by pirates. Little did they know their story didn’t hold up because they had no idea about the effects of ocean currents.

That ocean current, which I guess I can best describe as an underwater river, always runs the same direction. The Gulf Stream, which is the current that we’re talking about with the Joe Cool, runs from south to north and it’s very strong. So, if hypothetically, the Joe Cool had run out of gas in the Gulf Stream, they would have ended up around New York or Maine or somewhere on the outer banks. For the boat to be found X number of miles south was physically impossible without some form of propulsion.

I feel like you could have solved the case yourself if anyone had cared to ask you.

You flatter me.

I know you live in Florida. Were you familiar with the case of the Joe Cool or any of the other stories before they were featured on Deadly Waters?

I remember reading about the Joe Cool. That was big news around here for a long time. We just couldn’t believe that it actually happened to begin with. We couldn’t believe how stupid the perpetrators were. One of the things that will amaze you the most about some of these stories featured on the show is the motivation behind the killings. You actually took somebody’s life for this? Their families will never be the same. They have a hole in their hearts that will never be filled. And for what? It just boggles the mind.

I think all sea captains know how to spin a good yarn. Do you consider yourself to be a storyteller?

I’ve never thought of myself as a storyteller. There are so many things that Mother Nature is capable of doing to you that will affect you. When you eventually relay examples of Mother Nature’s power to somebody else, you inevitably come off as a good story teller. You can’t plan these crazy things. They just happen. They’re out of your control. We have a saying, “Everybody wants to be a captain, until it’s time to do captain sh*t.” When amateurs see that 30-foot wave in front of them, suddenly, they’re looking to toss the keys to somebody else.

Would you say that most of the dangerous situations you’ve faced at sea have been because of Mother Nature?

Absolutely. The very few that aren’t can almost always be traced back to operator error or judgment. Mother Nature is very unforgiving. She’s not going to pat you on the back and say, “it’s okay, we’ll get it next time.” No, she will make you pay.

Most of the time when you think of the open water, you think of its beauty and serenity, but it can turn on a dime. What about the setting makes criminals think they can get away with murder?

They’ve watched too many travel movies or something. Mother Nature is going to do what Mother Nature is going to do.You may think you’ve got it figured out and planned for every contingency, except that maybe you didn’t realize that there was a tidal problem in that area where you were committing your crime. Or maybe there was a current issue like with the Joe Cool. The current played a huge part in solving that particular case. So, while these criminals are busy committing their nefarious acts, they don’t realize a particular weather phenomenon will be their undoing. Sometimes, these people are just plain stupid.

What’s the biggest mistake amateur boaters make that put them in dangerous situations?

They refuse to admit to themselves that they’re not smart enough to know what they don’t know. That’s what’ll get ’em in trouble. There’s a couple of inlets here around Fort Lauderdale that are notoriously difficult to get in and out of. Haulover Inlet is one of the most treacherous ones, and there have been a number of accidental deaths there because people don’t know what they don’t know. They think they know if all. Then suddenly they find out they’re asshole deep in alligators and they forgot that their primary objective was to drain the swamp. That’s what happens to the perpetrators of some of these crimes. They think, “well, all we got to do is just throw this body overboard and we’re golden.” Mother Nature thinks otherwise, and she’ll make sure that what goes down to the bottom of the ocean doesn’t necessarily stay there.

Is there any story that stuck with you from season one?

There’s one elderly captain who lived on board his boat and died senselessly. He was spinning out his golden years living on the water, doing what he wanted to do, and was murdered. When you find out the motive behind his murder, it just really aggravates you. It’s just frustrating. That’s the only word I can use. One of the reasons that I really enjoy doing this series is that it does highlight what Mother Nature is capable of in a very short period of time. Some of these crimes didn’t get solved overnight. Some of ’em took a long, long time for officials to figure out, usually with the help of Mother Nature. You can’t win with Mother Nature. She’s always going to extract her pound of flesh. Make no mistake about it.

Before I let you go, I have to ask you: What does Mary Anne think of Deadly Waters?

We watched the first episode together, and she was impressed with it. She was amazed at how the producers brought together all the different segments so that they make sense and map out the full case. They didn’t take a shotgun approach to telling the story. They definitely did an outstanding job. It was a pleasure for me to work with such a group of professionals. Mary Anne was happy for me.

Deadly Waters with Captain Lee premieres Saturday, June 1 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Oxygen