Imagine planning for months to do a charity sail from London to Brighton, only to find out the morning before you depart that the barrier is going to be closed and you’ll have to start further down-river.

Well that’s exactly what happened to Simon Conder and Matt Illston this weekend, when forecast northerly winds coincided with Spring tides and the Environment Agency closed the Thames Barrier.

So departure was moved to Gravesend before dawn on Saturday, and 18 hours later the pair completed the course raising more than £9,000 in the process.

Click here to read the whole story and see the pictures on www.london2brighton.com