Weeks after making her successful solo Channel swim, Dover mum Sam Jones went back into the water yesterday for a relay swim.

Sam joined forces with Emma France, from Guildford, and Irish swimmer Jim Boucher, who also lives in Guildford, for a three-person relay.

Setting off in the early hours of Thursday morning, they made good progress and Sam clambered ashore on the French coast 11 hours 30 minutes later.

Originally the swim had been planned as an all-girl affair, with another successful Dover solo swimmer, Michelle Toptalo, as the third member of the team, going under the name Three Birds In A Boat. Michelle was unable to take part on Thursday, and her place was taken by Jim.

Having already registered under that team name, they had to go ahead with it - and so Jim was dubbed “Jimima” for the swim!

“It all went very well,” said Sam, who achieved her ambition of a solo swim in September in 16 hours 34 minutes. “We were able to almost swim straight across, without too much interference from the tides.”

Emma, who is 40, only started swimming seriously in 2000 and has already taken part in two six-person relay Channel swims.

Jim, who celebrated his 48th birthday on Monday, swam with a relay team in 2005, did a solo swim in 15.28 last year, and had completed another relay swim less than two weeks before Thursday’s swim.

It is expected that this will have been the final successful Channel swim of the season. The official observer for it was former Dover Mayor Bob Markham, who was also the observer on this year’s first swim.

There was disappointment for a woman who is confined to a wheelchair through polio. After training all summer, she began her solo attempt on Wednesday and had swum for 25 hours 14 minutes when the escort crew became concerned for her welfare and took her out of the water on Thursday evening.

She was less than a mile from the French coast.

Other swimmers have been paying tribute to her valiant effort, and have described her as “an inspiration”.