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We arrived at Dover Marina and unpacked our stuff to head towards our support boat. Our skipper, Eddie, filled in all the necessary paperwork and explained a few of the boat rules to us. As soon as he said there was space for 3 people to sleep in the cabin, I saw Luke's eyes sparkle ! (those who don't know, last year Luke slept for 8hrs out of 12 on the boat, leaving his 3 x 1hr swims as the only time he was awake)

We had a 40mins ride to the area that the first swimmers would be dropped off.

Dolphin was used to warm water, a 33m pool and black line to follow....here we was, in pitch black darkness with only a light on a boat to follow...you should've seen his face when they called "First swimmer's in the water please"....he even turned around and looked at us with a straight face and asked "Is that me?"

During such moments, all it takes is a comment like that to break the atmosphere and send us all into hysterics. Classic. He did however give us stern orders. "We have to break 12hrs, because I am NOT swimming 3 times"

So there we were at 01h05 with 4 swimmers on the beach, all ready to go. The horn sounded and off they went crashing into the waves. The luminous glow sticks were the only things we could see in the dark.

Leg 1 Dolphin:
Dolphin was having a blinder and quickly opened a slight advantage over CSFB (who had one of their strongest ever swim teams). When he received the "10mins to go" signal....he literally kicked off what looked like a 200m sprint interval...only thing is, this lasted for 10mins. People pay money to watch a guy like that swim in a pool.

Leg 2 Luke:
Next up was Luke, and having done this last year, he knew what had to be done and quietly got on with it. By now I was under a duvet in the front and Jimmy joined me. He was shivering his ass off, and knew how much I was dreading my swim legs. All he could mutter to me to try and boost my confidence, was "It's not as cold as the Lido" He then shivered himself to sleep. GREAT !! I thought, he is blue in the lips and sleeping, how does that help me. Luke however was depositing his evening dinner back into the channel.

Leg 3 Maddie:
After Luke it was Maddie. She is a great swimmer and was determined not to let the cold affect her. She swam a great leg. But as soon as she got in the boat, she was throwing up pretty much everything she had eaten.

Leg 4 Guns:
Now Guns doesn't feel the cold...he didn't even shiver when swimming in Dover in 12degree water. He would often send us a txt saying he was "sitting" in the cold water in Southend at 9pm on a Friday night. He got out and basically really didn't need any warming up. Now the reason for having a support person on the boat, is to make sure the exiting swimmer has dry towels, clothes to change into and maybe some hot tea etc. George was nowhere to be found....why???....he was sleeping in the cabin !! No worries we thought, he did cycle 105km yesterday as support cyclist, he can have 2hrs shut eye.

Leg 5 Welshie:
A person who cannot sit still at the best of times, he had been training for this all year round, like an elastic band waiting to go off. He got in the water and swam as if the future of Welsh rugby depended on it. When he had 20mins to go, I started to grease myself up. I was absolutely bricking it, and I know it is probably 85% mental, but I knew it was time to get on with it.

Leg 6 Keeto:
I got in and immediately felt cold, that wasn't a good sign. I got into a rhythym and tried to relax, but was physically shaking underwater at 17mins ! I shouted to George to throw me hot water in a bottle (rules state that we cannot touch the boat or any person whilst in water). A quick sip and I carried on. I did this twice more and honestly, hand on heart, can say that I actually thought that I was going to have to get pulled from the water, I couldn't take this anymore. Yet each time I breathed to the right and saw my team mates, I knew I couldn't bail on them and get us DQ'd. The cold hurt, I just wanted to see that 10mins to go board.

Can't tell you much after that, I was in a trance. Next thing I remember was seeing Dolphin swim past me to signal that I could get in the boat. George had towels for me and once dry I put on my tracksuit, beanie and gloves. Off to bed under a duvet. Guns was lying next to me and managed to pass me the hot water bottles. (this warms core body temp). One was placed on my chest and the other one between my legs. I just kept thinking to myself, "I cannot do that again, no way can I survive that" I shivered myself to sleep.

Leg 7 Dolphin:
I awoke to Dolphin again getting into bed. I got up and the skipper was gobsmacked.... Dolphin had just swum 4 miles in his hour !! By now CSFB, Morgan Stanley and BarCap were all in a line across the English Channel. It looked like this would be a close swim leg.

Leg 8 Luke:
After Luke's very powerful swim, we were still close to CSFB.

Leg 9 Maddie:
She got in and was feeling very weak because of her inability to keep anything down. Thus she battled with energy and just dug deep to get through her hour. Respect. By now the skipper mentioned that we may be looking at a 10.5hr finish. This brought the biggest smile to my face, as I was 6th swimmer, so it meant no 2nd leg to me ! I looked at Guns and Tim with puppy dog eyes and begged them to please get us to France.

Leg 10 Guns:
He got in and carried on swimming steadily towards France. But at this stage the tide turned and it meant we were swimming into a brick wall.

Leg 11 Welshie:
Tim was next and he went about his job without complaints. It soon dawned on us, we had missed the tide and now faced a 12hr swim, which meant I was definitely going to swim an entire hour.

My heart sank and I tried to motivate myself, but sitting below deck, Guns and Luke could see I was in bad shape. They both offered words of encouragement and gave me some confidence that it is was nearly over. I swore at that moment, NEVER EVER do I swim across the damn channel again....whether it be for charity or not. I greased up and was ready to go. Welshie in midstroke screamed that the water had got warmer. Now whether that was the truth or one of his ways to kickstart Keeto, only time would tell.

Leg 12 Keeto:
I got in and to my relief, the Welshman was in fact telling the truth, it was a little warmer. I swam as hard as I could for an hour and when the 10mins to go signal came, I actually managed a smile. Why? Because I knew I was 600secs from hanging up my goggles for this event!

Leg 13 Dolphin:
Dolphin jumped in and sped off in search of the dry land of Calais. By now CSFB had finished, owing to getting the tide at the right time. BarCap had also finished and DB were only 20mins away. Dolphin was flying and even managed some butterfly (see pic). 12h56mins after the start, Dolphin was on dry land. We had done it, another channel crossing.

We lost 2hrs to CSFB, and realised that barring a catastrophe on the bike leg, they would win it. But we vowed we would win the bike leg, something that sparked excitement throughout the team. Once in Calais harbour, we unpacked the boat and headed for a restaurant for some food. Here we met the DB team and heard that they had to pull one of their swimmers from the water after 30mins. The rules stated that they should no longer allow this person to continue. But as this was a charity event, we wanted him to continue in the event and cycle.

Bike leg was planned to kick off in 4hrs.