Below Deck’s Captain Lee Rosbach on life after leaving the show for health reasons
He's about to have a 'big surgery'
Captain Lee Rosbach, also known as the Stud of the Sea, left Below Deck during season 10 after a serious back injury. Three years ago, he wasn’t invited back to Bravo to continue being the charter captain of Below Deck. He’s since moved on to other ventures outside of yachting while taking care of his health.
He also revealed that he’s scheduled for major surgery on October 15 to fix his back and leg problems. The procedure can take up to six hours, but he hopes it will help him “get my life back to normal,” he shared.
Captain Lee took to Instagram to share details of his upcoming surgery. In a video he posted on September 30, he described it as a “big surgery” that will take place in two distinct phases.
He also intends to make a documentary about the process by making a 30-minute documentary that’s compiled of various video updates he will share every two or three days. “I wanted to take all of you on the same journey that I’m going to make,” Captain Lee said.
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In one of the videos, he says that he’s “getting a little anxious… a little nervous,” with the surgery just a few days away now.
“What they’re gonna do is an anterior lumbar total disc replacement between L3 and L4, and an anterior lumbar Interbody fusion between L4 and L5, and then another anterior lumbar total disc replacement at L5 to S1,” Captain Lee explained.
“They’re also going to do a posterior spinal cord stimulator panel and battery removal with a thoracic laminectomy and a left-sided L3-L4 gastric cyst removal.”
“Other than that, I’ve got nothing going on that day,” he jokes. “I think I’m going to be busy for lunch.”
This comes a few years after the 76 year old temporarily left Below Deck season 10 due to worsening nerve damage and back issues. He’s since revealed that while he took a short absence, he didn’t leave the show and was actually pushed out by Bravo.
“I did not quit,” he told The Sun Sentinel. “I did not retire. I was just not invited back.”
Captain Lee was the face of the show since it first aired in 2013. He starred on it for close to a decade, and has said that he would go back if production asked him. “If they found out that they needed me back on the show, I’d go back,” he shared. “I’ve done it for 10 years, and if I’m gonna make an exit, I’d kind of like to make it on different terms.”