A BRAVE pensioner told today how he clung to life for a staggering 36 hours as gale force winds and massive waves battered his boat in the North Atlantic.

Granddad David Grogan, 69, thought his days were numbered when he was forced to take down the sails and switch off the engine on his 30ft boat, The Kitty Flow 2, as it rocked violently in the sea. David, and two friends, were about 300 miles from the Bay of Biscay when they hit a series of thunderstorms.

The former Blackburn shopkeeper has now been described as "the Tony Bullimore of East Lancashire" for surviving a terrifying sea ordeal like the millionaire yachtsman. And Mr Bullimore's wife, Lalel, told the Evening Telegraph today: "He sounds like a brave person, but he's obviously a madman like my Tony!"

David, who has suffered a stroke and who has undergone a double heart by-pass operation, spent a day-and-a-half drifting and being thrown around the craft like a rag doll with his friends George Povey, of Bolton and Dennis Leigh, of Morecambe.

The pensioner, of Whalley New Road, Blackburn, left Fleetwood to sail to Fuengirola in Spain last week.

David said: "We couldn't sleep, eat or drink. We were just holding on to the side of the boat to stop us being thrown about. I couldn't even take my heart pills.

"The waves were crashing at us from all directions and they were close to 60ft tall.

"I said a little prayer and I all I could think about was my family and my two friends who were with me.

"Even now I can't believe we're alive because I never thought we'd survive it. There were a couple of times when the boat nearly tipped right over.

"We kept our spirits up by talking to each other. We had to, otherwise we would have gone crazy with fear.

"After 36 hours I looked outside and I saw a vessel we had passed two days earlier. We'd actually been blown back that much.

"It was one hell of an experience and I wouldn't like to go through it again. But it's not put me off my boat. I'll be back on it as soon as I can." The sails had to be taken down when it was feared they wouldn't survive the strong winds.

The sea was hitting the side of the boat "with the force of truck" and at one point water began entering the Bermuda sloop.

The three were too far out for anyone to receive a May Day call.

The intrepid trio eventually made it to Penzance with nothing more than a few bruises to show for their ordeal.

David immediately reached for a glass of whisky and called wife, Mavis, 63.

"I've never been so glad to see land," he added. "We were so exhausted and I still feel like I'm rocking."

A relieved Mavis: "I'd had this awful feeling since he left that something was going to go wrong and when he called my heart sunk.

"But I'm just glad he's alive. If he wants to go again I'll not stop him."

The £29,000 boat is now being looked at by insurance assessors after limping into Penzance harbour.

David's son, also called David, said: "He's the Tony Bullimore of East Lancashire. To survive like that for 36 hours at the age of 69 is incredible."

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