Below Deck's Eddie Has A Very Different Job When He's Not On The Show

Longtime fans of Bravo's hit yachting reality show Below Deck fell in love with Eddie Lucas all the way back in Season 1. Originally serving as a deckhand, Lucas was later promoted to bosun for the subsequent two seasons, only to disappear from our screens completely. He made his triumphant return to Below Deck in Season 8, even though he admitted to Bravo's The Daily Dish, after Season 3, "I really never thought I was gonna be coming back." As Lucas revealed, he got sick of yachtie life.

The reality star explained, "I was kind of tired of dealing with the guests and dealing with the constant upkeep of the boat and the cleaning and everything like that. But also most importantly, I wanted to find a job where I was home. I was near my dad and my stepmom, and I could kind of start creating a life at home rather than constantly moving around from port to port, away from home for months on end" (via The Daily Dish). As it turns out, Lucas' day job is close to his onscreen one and yet totally different.

As Lucas explained to Bravo's The Daily Dish, he found local work at home in Baltimore on tugboats, which satisfied his desire to work on the water, but also to have more of a life and a sense of freedom. In fact, the Below Deck fan favorite cut his teeth on tugboats for nearly five years between seasons, ultimately upgrading his qualification to a 1600-ton license and getting promoted to a coveted position as first mate, which he's held ever since. As per his LinkedIn page, Lucas has been employed by Moran Towing Corporation since 2017. Working aboard a four-person tugboat is a massive challenge. Lucas advised The Daily Dish, "It's 24 hours a day, seven days a week for two weeks that we're on, and it's constant work."

He added, "I'm up all night long almost every single night doing pretty inherently risky activities, docking massive ships into Baltimore Harbor." Lucas described it as "exciting" and challenging in equal measure, noting, "I love my work," despite the fact it's worlds away from the glamorous yachtie life. However, "it's not as demanding in the sense of dealing with guests and constant upkeep of the boat." As Lucas admitted to Cosmopolitan, his tugboat colleagues love watching him on Below Deck purely so they can make fun of him for it, even encouraging him to do better cameos. Following Season 8, Lucas returned to the tugboat life, telling Vulture it's been "business as usual" during the COVID-19 pandemic.