Hannah Ferrier Says Daughter Ava Can Never Be a ‘Below Deck’ Yachtie – This Wild Story May Be Why [Exclusive]
Hannah Ferrier wants her daughter Ava to follow her career dreams someday – just as long as she steers clear of yachting (and probably reality TV). The former Below Deck Mediterranean chief stew experienced far too many harrowing encounters as a yachtie, so yachting is not on the table.
“Ava’s not allowed to do yachting,” she joked with Showbiz Cheat Sheet about her toddler. “I’m all about people living their best life and experiencing yachting. But Ava will not be one of them.”
This may be why Hannah Ferrier wants her daughter to stay on land
Ferrier reflected on the current Below Deck Med season when the boat stabilizer loss caused some serious drama. She said: been there done that. “My friend who is a captain has literally been on a boat that got struck by lightning twice,” she recalled. “It’s like how can you be on a boat that got stuck by lightning? And then like three days later you’re on another boat that got struck by lightning!”
She then turned to an instance that happened to her in yachting before Below Deck, which may be a big reason why Ava is not allowed to go into yachting someday. “It was actually really hilarious because my first season was a complete nightmare,” she recalled. “When I went back to do a second season, not on camera, like in real yachting, people were just like, I can’t believe you’re back! Because I had adult chicken pox. I had a captain steal my passport, and then my boat caught fire while we were at sea.”
She recalled how the boat on fire wasn’t the worst part of the story
Ferrier recalled that the yacht caught fire shortly after she finished decorating the boat for a birthday party. “The funniest thing was that I decorated it for the charter guest’s birthday,” she said. “So there were all these balloons everywhere on a boat that was literally on fire.”
“We let out a mayday call and another charter boat came and picked up the guests,” Ferrier recalled. “And I went to get on and the captain’s like, ‘No! You stay on the boat.’ I was like ‘But I don’t want to be on a boat that’s on fire!'”
She laughed, thinking back at how she didn’t think twice about following the guests off of the burning vessel. But then the story gets much worse. “So we stayed on the boat. And I was going down to get fire extinguishers, and I fell down the stairs. So I ripped tendons in my foot, but we got the fire out. And then a tug boat pulled us to Elba in Italy and the boat was written off. So it was horrible actually because the captain was like, ‘Oh, the boat’s written off this season, so you’re fired.'”
Hannah needed 3 days to get home after her injury
The captain gave her a little money. But she was stuck in Italy wearing an orthopedic boot, with no one to call. “He gave me like €100 to get back to France, but my foot was in one of those big boots because I’d ripped my tendons,” she laughed. “And I had 50 kilos of luggage.”
Ferrier said it was a pretty sad scene. “It took me, like, three days to slowly make my way with my crutches and all my luggage back to France,” she said. “So honestly, I look back on my first season and I’m like, oh my God, I just want to help myself, I’m so sad [laughs]. It’s so funny because now if that happened to me anywhere in Europe, I would call my friends and they would help me. But back then I didn’t know anyone to call. Everyone’s in Australia on the other side of the world.”
So, sorry Ava … you can definitely charter a yacht – just don’t plan to be working on one someday.
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