Seasickness, jellyfish and warships on Channel swim

Six women from the Isle of Sheppey have battled seasickness, jellyfish and passing warships while attempting a relay swim across the English Channel.

The Sheppey Channel Champions set off from Dover at 06:06 BST on Monday, taking turns to swim one-hour legs as they made their way towards France.

The challenge comes 100 years after Gertrude "Trudy" Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel, with the team aiming to complete the crossing after 18 months of training.

Speaking from the support boat, swimmer Sue Davis said: "It feels surreal that we are doing it, it has been a long time coming."

She added: "It's going ok, it is quite bouncy and we've all been seasick.

"I was not expecting it to be a mill pond, but the swell is quite something to deal with."

The team, which includes Emily Yates, 50, Teresa Oliver, 57, Rachel Porter, 50, Laura Kent, who is in her early 30s and 50-year-old Heidi Martin-Barshell, are all from the Isle of Sheppey.

They were due to leave on Sunday night but were delayed by the winds, and Davis said they were all pleased not to have to swim through the night.

"We could not have better weather but wish it was a little calmer," she said. "It is still a bit of a daunting task ahead, we just have to keep going."

The 63-year-old, who hit a sizeable jellyfish during her first leg, said that although she was used to swimming for an hour, it seemed longer.

Each swimmer will be in the water for an hour and they must swim in the same order to complete the challenge.

In between swims the women are resting, eating if they can, egging each other on and keeping each other's spirits up.

The Channel is 22 miles at its narrowest, but the team could end up swimming anything in excess of 35 miles, due to the currents.

After swimming the first stint, Oliver told BBC Radio Kent, she had been thinking about Ederle's record.

She said: "What she did was absolutely amazing, we're only doing a fraction of it.

"Everyone in the team should be proud of themselves for getting to this point.

"As a team hopefully we'll be as successful as she was."

Davis said she was not sure how long the swim would take but it could be around 15-16 hours and they expected to reach France by early evening, it will then be a 3-hour boat trip back to Kent.

Sue added: "We are some form of crazy and I think we'll all enjoy it tomorrow when we have stopped being sick."

The team are raising money for SwimTayka, which provides free swimming lessons and drowning prevention education to underprivileged children living beside open water.

Ederle's achievement is celebrated at the Queen of the Waves exhibition at Dover Museum until 7 November.

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