..THERE JUST WASN'T TIME TO BE SCARED; EXCLUSIVE Griff's lucky escape from yacht fire Pal tells of ordeal.Byline: BY TOM BRYANT Tom Bryant (born Chatham, Kent on October 71988) is a professional footballer with Gillingham, with whom he has been associated since the age of ten. A left sided defender, he has yet to make his full debut, but signed as a professional in May 2007. SHOWBIZ REPORTER THIS is the fire-ravaged yacht where comedian Griff Rhys Jones Griffith Rhys Jones (born 16 November 1953), better known as Griff Rhys Jones, is a British comedian, writer and actor. He came to national attention in the 1980s when he starred with Mel Smith in a number of comedy sketch shows on British TV. cheated death by jumping into shark infested waters. The terrifying pictures show smoke billowing bil·low n. 1. A large wave or swell of water. 2. A great swell, surge, or undulating mass, as of smoke or sound. v. bil·lowed, bil·low·ing, bil·lows v.intr. 1. from the blackened hull of the luxury MV Parranda as it sinks in the Pacific Ocean. Griff n. 1. Grasp; reach. A vein of gold ore within one spade's griff. - Holland. 2. (Weaving) An arrangement of parallel bars for lifting the hooked wires which raise the warp threads in a loom for weaving figured goods. , wife Jo and 13 other friends were forced to abandon ship on the captain's orders after a blaze broke out in the engine room. As the fire tore through the yacht, they had to tread water for 30 minutes in sea notorious for its dangerous sharks off the Galapagos Islands, South America. Griff's pal Peter Wilson took the pictures as the party were rescued by a cruise ship. He said: "There was a panic as people were scattered all over the boat from the bow to the stern and people couldn't see each other. "There was smoke everywhere. But there wasn't time to be scared as it all happened so quickly. Looking back on it, we were very lucky indeed." The boat had gallons of fuel on board and the fire engulfed the 129ft ship in seconds. After being rescued, the group went to Quito, the Ecuador capital. Peter, the chief of Norwich Theatre Royal, added: "The Foreign Office and the Ecuadorian government were amazing and put us up in first-class hotels and gave us money." An investigation into the explosion has begun. CAPTION(S): GONE Final plume of smoke as it disappears; HOPELESS Rescuers watch its last seconds; DOOMED The MV Parranda starts to sink; HELL Griff had to jump into waters infested with sharks; WRECK Smoke pours from the burnt-out yacht |
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