The trip sounds great to me. As always with all VFR flying we have to be lucky with the weather and back up plans are a must if you have to be there. That aside though the channel crossings aren't that bad. I learnt at southend and everyone is regulary doing channel crossings, new PPL's included.During the summer half my flights are across the water. If it is hazy though it can seem like your in cloud with no horizon at all, a little unerving if you haven't done it before. A nice little trick if possible is to try and get above the inversion and use that as a horizon.