A ROYAL Navy submariner from Taunton and three of his colleagues have completed a swim across the English Channel.

Lt Cdr Hugo Mitchell-Heggs and his teammates arrived at Plage de Wissant 17 hours and 11 minutes after setting out from Samphire Hoe, Dover in the early hours.

Hugo and Capt Elton Sharkey, Cdr Richard Cragg and Lt Cdr Callum Fraser swam in a relay of an hour swimming followed by three hours resting and refuelling with calories.

They followed Channel Swimming Association rules of only wearing Speedos, swim caps and goggles despite the cold water temperature, constant wind and stronger than expected current producing "choppy and unfavourable conditions".

Hugo said: "Add a few thousand jellyfish and crossing one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world to really spice things up.

"We worked hard and by our third hour shift each we had good sight of the French coast, but a strong easterly current coming from Cap Gris Nez point - our planned finishing spot in France - prevented us from touching distance of this peninsular."

He added: "It was a long and very hard day, but the experience was worth every minute of the slog."

The was one of eight Channel swim attempts setting off on the same morning, with only four making it the whole way.

Hugo said: "The team owe our success to our relentless teamwork and a robust process of self-care, helping each other out of the water between shifts, drying off, warming up and piling in the calories for the next hour long swim shift, three hours later.

"We were also very much motivated by the hundreds of messages of support from family, friends, colleagues and a much wider community that support the Royal Navy."

The team also fundraised more than £6,000 for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity to provide mental health and wellbeing support to serving personnel, veterans and their families.

Hugo, who attended The Castle School and Richard Huish College in Taunton, is no stranger to maritime adventure.

Over Christmas 2019 and the New Year he was in a four-man team who rowed 3,000 miles across The Atlantic from The Canary Islands to Antigua in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge over 37 days, six hours and 40 minutes.