Cowes Week 1976

I was living in a large, rather smart, flat in Iverna Court just off High Street Kensington in London. We were six in total, three girls, three boys, none of whom was "connected" in any way.
There was Mike, the owner who came from Hampshire, Jenny and I think Penny who shared a room, Sally who was the poshest one of all and worked in the "City" and finally Kim, an Australian and the fashion man being a buyer for Bally Shoes and constantly on trips to fashion houses and shows in Milan, Paris etc.

The flat was huge with two separate loos and a further two separate bathrooms as well as sitting room, dining room and massive kitchen. For those who remember the summer of 1976 will also remember it being the hottest summer on record, I think it still maintains this notoriety in 2017 as I post this. The kitchen with its Linoleum floor and large windows became the place we spent many nights sleeping in - the Lino floor was super cool!

Despite our very different fashion styles (I had none), Kim and I were great friends and did lots of things together. One of these was a weekend trip to the Isle of Wight for Cowes Week where two Australian buddies of his were doing the then mandatory for all young Australians - "Europe Tour" - buying an old VW bus and spending months "doing" Europe.

We set off at 5:00am for Southampton in my old Saab 96 no doubt listening to Elton John and Kiki Dee. Difficult for me as my 3 year long relationship with girlfriend Annie was cracking up and the chart hit "Don't go breaking my heart" was to be heard everywhere AND Annie had a close resemblance to Kiki Dee.

Dumped the car at Sothampton and took the ferry to Cowes and wandered around enjoying the sights and sounds of all the Commodores, Vice-Commodores and Rear-Commodores strutting around in blazers, white trousers, club ties and hats. Lots of champagne stands to look at but outside our price category. Eventually late afternoon, Rick and Ron the two Australians returned to the harbour after spending the day crewing on one of the competition boats.

A beer or two later, we all got in to Rick and Ron's VW bus and managed to get a ferry back to Southampton at 10:00pm and then went in search of somewhere to camp for the night. We were in fact 6 in total, two girls had somehow got "attached".

In the middle of nowhere above Southampton we found a stubble field and pitched tent. I don't remember much of the night.