Swimming the Channel underwater

Six men and one women are the first people to swim across the English Channel from Britain to France in an underwater scuba relay.

"No problems whatsoever. It went like clockwork actually," organiser Colin Osbourne said after the team reached the French coast and returned to England by boat.

The team took to the sea at Dover on the south-eastern English coast and reached Cap Gris Nez in north-eastern France some 22 miles away just over 12 hours later, he says.

"We didn't expect to get across at that sort of speed. We thought it would take at least another four hours," Mr Osbourne said.

"It was perfect weather. There was hardly any wind so there was hardly any swell on the sea. So that made it easier."

He said earlier that the sight of huge ferries passing by and the sound of their giant propellers chopping up the water was terrifying.

"We've seen huge ships going past us. When you're underwater, you don't know where they're coming from and you think God, it's going to hit me!"

Swimming about four metres below the surface, the seven spent between 30 and 90 minutes underwater each before their compressed air tanks ran out and they handed over the baton - a surface marker buoy - to another team member.

The team had trained for two years.

Mr Osbourne says the team raised £50,000 ($90,000) for his Orchid Cancer Appeal, which he founded 10 years ago after discovering he had testicular cancer.

The charity funds research into the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of testicular, prostate and penile cancer.

The other relay team members are Lieutenant John Bainbridge and Lieutenant Commander Mike Leaney from the Royal Navy, and keen divers Warren Brown, Paul Cushing, Mark Evans and Rosemary Lunn.