A British couple whose yacht was fired upon by a Russian warship have vowed not to let the encounter ruin their holiday - insisting they are not 'idiot pensioners'.

Retired Jane Kelvey, 68, and her husband Alan, 70, were left exhausted after becoming embroiled in an international incident with Putin's vessel in the English Channel.

But Mrs Kelvey said the couple will carry on with their sailing holiday in France after catching up on some much-needed sleep - and are now focused on England's fate in the World Cup.

'This has blown up out of all proportion,' she said. 'We were up until one 1am dealing with this after sailing for 13 hours. We need a nap this afternoon.

'We still have no idea why the Russians decided to fire warning shots, but it was completely and utterly unnecessary. We were absolutely in the right.

'My husband has been sailing since he was 11. Ours is just a normal yacht, it's not an expensive yacht. We're not idiot pensioners. We weren't drunk.

'Whether we win or lose in the football, that will be more interesting, and we'll be following the by-election tomorrow.'

Asked whether they would stay up to watch England's match against Croatia, she joked: 'That would be fun, but I think we need an early night.'

Mrs Kelvey, speaking from the couple's leisure yacht Bright Future in Cherbourg, northern France, said she and her husband encountered the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich 23 miles off the Isle of Wight at 11.40am on Tuesday.

The couple heard four or five shots 'like a whip crack' after the Russian ship sounded its horn as they sailed nearby.

Mrs Kelvey accused Russia of falsely claiming they were under power, when in fact they were sailing, and therefore had right of way under maritime law.

'We weren't on a collision course, we were just going to go past the Russian vessel,' she said. 'There was absolutely nothing to see here. It was just straightforward sailing.'

She said the warship had not attempted to contact them by radio or fire warning flares before the shots were heard.

'They would have been able to see us from miles back because we had our AIS [Automatic Identification System] on,' she said.

'If they wanted to get in touch with us, they could easily have done it on the radio, which we had switched on. We were fully listening out, but they didn't put any messages out.'

Mrs Kelvey said the couple altered their course after hearing five blasts from the warship's horn - an internationally recognised warning signal used when one vessel is unsure of another's intentions.

But she insisted their yacht had not posed any danger.

'We definitely moved and we weren't closing in,' she said. 'We were keeping a steady course, going to pass them on our starboard side, and that would have been it. 

'When we got the first five blasts of their horn, we deliberately changed our course and they would have seen that. Then they gave another five blasts, and then they fired the gunshots.'

The couple initially struggled to understand what was happening. Mrs Kelvey said: 'We just thought, "What the hell was that?"

'We then had to put the engine on to move further away, because you can't just turn around swiftly or anything when you're under sail'

She said that if the Russian ship was unable to manoeuvre, that was 'their problem' and it should have displayed the appropriate maritime day shapes to warn surrounding vessels.

Mrs Kelvey added: 'We were not on a dangerous approach. There was no risk of collision. We were not breaking any of the COLREG [International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea] rules.'

Mrs Kelvey said the couple had previously passed naval vessels without difficulty and knew how to respond when exclusion zones were announced.

'If they don't want people to get close to them, they put a call out on Channel 16 and they put a one-nautical-mile exclusion zone around themselves,' she said.

'When you hear that, you avoid it. You obey those rules. There are all sorts of rules and we obeyed all of them.'

She said she would not have reported the confrontation if the Russians had merely sounded their horn.

'It was only the shots that made me think, 'We should report this', because you have a duty as a sailor, or anybody out at sea, to report incidents that are a danger to others,' she said. 'But I don't want to put off other British sailors.'

The couple decided to speak publicly after seeing Russia's account of the encounter.

'The only reason we spoke out about it was when we saw the Russian statement, because it just wasn't true,' Mrs Kelvey said.

'They would have known exactly what type of vessel we were. [Their action] was completely and utterly unnecessary.'