Poppy's come to the end of her work visa.

She partied most nights and now can't afford her flight back to the UK.

Her parents are annoyed, but not too worried.

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So more of their hard-earned cash actually reaches its destination.

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It's late afternoon on March 4, 1972.

Of the south coast of Britain, a strong wind churns the dirty grey waters of the Solent,

a narrow strait of the English Channel, which separates the Isle of White from the mainland.

The day is dark, the sun blotted out by heavy, sombre clouds. Rain falls in fierce bursts from the

ash and sky, mingling with the seething waves as they surge towards the shore. A gull screeches

mournfully into the gale, a sound filling the sky before it's borne away on the cry of the wind.

And then another noise rises above the squall, the monotonous drone of an engine.

Hovering inches above the turbulent gray sea, the looming bulk of a vessel heaves into view,

battling its way through the driving rain, kicking up a spray of spume its weight. It's a strange-looking creature,

neither boat nor plane, but something in between. A hovercraft. Using a cushion of air to float just above whatever surface it's crossing,

the hovercraft is adept to traversing different terrains, both on land and water. But in these

conditions, buffeted by the wind and waves, it's struggling. Inside the cabin, the passengers hold their breath as the sea rears up outside the windows

and throws itself against the amphibious craft among the 26 passengers on board are two men

in their early 20s sitting side by side on a bench roughly halfway along the compartment.

...