GBBO’s Prue Leith, 82, rescued by ‘angry’ fisherman after her boat went adrift off the coast of Sardinia amid engine failure

• The Great British Bake Off judge, 82, had been relaxing on a motor boat off the coat of Sardinia when the engine failed 
• Her desperate attempts to flag down passersby were misinterpreted as friendly waves 
• Going into detail about her ordeal, Prue told how she was ‘thirsty’ and had suffered an entire day of ‘absolute misery’ 

Prue Leith was rescued by an ‘angry’ fisherman after she was left adrift at sea for a day during a trip to Italy.

The Great British Bake Off judge, 82, had been relaxing on a motor boat off the coat of Sardinia when the engine failed, leaving her drifting further out to sea as the wind picked up.

And while she was saved by the Sardinian fisherman, he went on to chastise her for getting into the tricky situation, with Prue admitting that she had been ‘foolish’.

Oh dear: Prue Leith was rescued by an ‘angry’ fisherman after she was left adrift at sea for a day during a trip to Italy

Recounting the ordeal to The Mirror, she said: ‘I couldn’t start it and the wind was getting up. I thought, ‘This has the makings of a really bad novel’.’

However, as she continued to drift, her plight wasn’t helped by the fact that her desperate attempts to flag down passersby were misinterpreted as friendly waves.

She continued: ‘People would pass, not close enough to shout to them but close enough to wave and I’d be waving wildly and they just waved back, thinking I was just being friendly.’

Scary: The Great British Bake Off judge, 82, had been relaxing on a motor boat off the coat of Sardinia when the engine failed, leaving her drifting further out to sea as the wind picked up (pictured in Florida this month)

Danger: Prue was left at risk of floating to Corsica after going adrift off the coast of Sardinia 

After spending hours at sea, Prue told how a fisherman finally came to her aid, but she was swiftly told off by him.

She said: ‘He was so angry with me. He said, ”You tourists, you risk your lives. You could have drifted all the way to Corsica!” And he just gave me absolutely blazes. And there was I… sunburnt.’

Going into detail about her ordeal, Prue told how she was ‘thirsty’ and had suffered an entire day of ‘absolute misery’.

However, she conceded that the fisherman was right in telling her off as she admitted that she was indeed ‘very foolish’. 

Oh no: As she continued to drift, her plight wasn’t helped by the fact that her desperate attempts to flag down passersby were misinterpreted as friendly waves

It comes after Prue recalled the ‘traumatic’ moment she drowned a litter of kittens as a child. 

The cook put the sad memory into writing for her memoir I’ll Try Anything Once, writing that she and her mother lowered a bag of baby cats into some water just hours after their birth.

She wrote: ‘My mother and I, then 11, had just drowned some kittens… and for weeks I imagined those poor dead creatures.

‘Too many kittens was a frequent occurrence and there had come a day when my mother, unable to find homes for yet another litter, decided to drown the latest batch. 

Shocking: It comes after Prue recalled the ‘traumatic’ moment she drowned a litter of kittens as a child

‘My protests were met with a firm, ”Darling, it has to be done. They are only a few hours old. They will hardly know it’s happening”.

She added that her mother said they only needed to hold the bag of kittens under the water for a short time to send them to ‘sleep’ but that they ‘fought like the devil for life’.

Dame Prue said her mother then changed her mind but the television personality said they couldn’t stop and she held the bag under until the animals ‘stopped mewing’.

Looking back: The Great British Bake Off judge put the sad memory into writing for her memoir I’ll Try Anything Once

Source: Read Full Article