Montauk Point-Block Island Swim Relay Just Another Day at the Beach for Dawgpatch Bandits

Dawgpatch Bandits, a nonprofit founded by Drew Harvey of Sag Harbor that performs difficult physical endurance tests to raise money in support of mental health causes — and sometimes just for the challenge itself — has pulled off another feat.

On August 23, a four-man relay team swam from Montauk Point to Dories Cove on Block Island, completing an approximately 16-mile course in 8 hours and 44 minutes.

“This is the first successful completed swim from Montauk Point to Block Island in recorded history,” said Harvey, 27, who was joined by Spencer Schneider, 64, of East Hampton and New York City, Michal Petrzela, 49, of East Hampton and New York City, and Jeremy Grosvenor, 54, of Sagaponack, in the effort.

Before the angry letters start to arrive, it’s important to clarify a key point: Exactly two years earlier, on August 23, 2022, endurance swimmer Lori King swam from Block Island to Montauk Point — solo, no less — completing a 24-mile crossing in 8 hours, 39 minutes and 45 seconds.

So what’s the big deal with four able-bodied men doing it as a relay?

“Not to take anything away from Lori King. It’s an incredible thing she did,” Harvey said. “But it’s a different swim. She went the other way,” He said she actually swam a much longer, U-shaped course that took her away from the swift currents in Block Island Sound and out into the Atlantic Ocean before she turned back toward Montauk.

“It was thought that this swim in this direction in the corridor we did it in wasn’t possible,” Harvey said. “The people who are familiar with being out there are the ones who tell you, ‘You can’t do it because of the currents’ — the fishermen, charter captains.”

Plus, one of Harvey’s teammates, Schneider, had tried it and failed. “He has been swimming with us for years, and we knew it was something he wanted to get on the books for a long time,” Harvey said.

The Montauk Point-to-Block Island swim was “the 800-pound gorilla” in a series of swims that began in 2018 and saw members of Dawgpatch Bandits swim across all of the major bays on the East End, including from Red Cedar Point in Flanders to Robins Island; from Jessups Neck in Noyac to North Haven; from Southold to Greenport; from Cedar Point in Northwest Woods to Gardiner’s Island; and from Gardiner’s Island to Plum Island.

The Dawgpatch team set off from Sag Harbor shortly after 5 a.m., on a 32-foot Pursuit helmed by Tom Heine and Dave Harvey.

The group picked the date because of ideal weather and favorable tides.

“It was the perfect day,” Harvey said. “That’s a big part of it. There’s only maybe one or two days a year that you could do this swim and complete it.”

Schneider kicked off the swim, which began at slack to incoming sunrise tide. He swam in to shore, touched land and then began the first leg, accompanied by Nick Stevens, 28, of Sag Harbor and Hawaii, who served as spotter and paddled the entire way on a prone paddle board.

Swimmers swapped out every half hour.

“While swimming, swimmers were unassisted and did not make contact with the guide boat or the paddle board until the next swimmer was in the water,” Harvey said.

Each swimmer swam at least two hours over the course of the day, with the current pushing them northward during the second and third intervals. Harvey said the four swimmers swam the last leg together so they would all reach shore at the same time.

A highlight for Harvey was when 25 to 30 dolphins swam among the swimmers for a stretch. “They were definitely checking us out,” he said.

Harvey said the swim series and the other physical tests the organization undertakes were inspired by Harvey’s former teacher and lifeguard mentor, Mike Semkus, who died of a drug overdose.

“It’s all for a higher purpose,” Harvey said.