Block Island Swim: Relay
*2024 POINT TO POINT of the Year WINNER*
The long fabled Montauk Point to Block Island Swim has been completed. This swim was completed as a relay by a team of 4 swimmers rotating every 30 minutes from Montauk Point Lighthouse to the shores of Block Island. This is the first successfully completed swim from Montauk Point to Block Island in recorded history. The brain child of Spencer Schneider is now and forever etched in the record books by the Dawgpatch Bandits’ Swim Crew.
Date of Completion: 08/23/2024
Objective: Montauk Point, NY to Block Island, RI
Point to Point: Montauk Point Lighthouse (North Side) to Dories Cove, Block Island.
Distance: 16 miles
Swimmers: Spencer Schneider, Drew Harvey, Michal Petrzela, Jeremy Grosvenor.
Prone Paddle Spotter: Nicholas Stevens.
Guide Boat Captain/Crew: Tom Heine & Dave Harvey
This swim was completed as a 4 person relay with swimmers rotating every 30 minutes. Each waypoint marks a full cycle through the swim rotation. See chart.
Start Time: 6:31 AM
Waypoint (1): 8:31 AM
Waypoint (2): 10:31 AM
Waypoint (3): 12:31 PM
Waypoint (4): 2:31 PM
End Time: 3:15 PM
Total Swim Duration: 8 hr 44 min
Trip Report:
The crew departed from Sag Harbor at 5:05 AM in guide boat, a 32’ Pursuit, to head out to the swim start location. Spencer Schneider (first swimmer) swam in to touch land on the North side of Montauk Point Lighthouse and began swim at 6:31 AM. Nick Stevens (paddle spotter) guided Schneider off of Montauk Point to the open waters of where the Block Island Sound meets the Atlantic Ocean. Swim start was at a sunrise slack to incoming tide off of Montauk Point. Moon was Waxing Gibbous causing a super low tide. Compass Heading was 067 degrees off Montauk Point Light. Block Island was visible in the distance. Weather conditions were clear. Winds were 5 kts out of the west.
Schneider made a strong first leg off of MTK Point and just like that, we were in it. At 7:01 AM second swimmer, Drew Harvey, dives off the guide boat into the water and begins swimming alongside paddle spotter, guide boat comes to neutral for Schneider to exit the water. *Note this swim was done continuously, at no point was there a swimmer not in the water. At 7:31 AM third swimmer, Michal Petrzela, enters the water from guide boat and begins swimming, Harvey exits the water. 8:01 AM fourth swimmer, Jeremy Grosvenor, enters the water off of the guide boat, and Petrzela exits the water. At 8:31 AM we are back to the top of the swim rotation with Spencer Schneider re-entering the water, and Grosvenor exiting. We then repeated this swim cycle until we reached Block Island.
Captains Tom Heine and Dave Harvey switched off manning the helm of the guide boat and spotting swimmers and surrounding waters.
Paddle Spotter & Lifeguard, Nick Stevens, completed the entirety of the 16 mile crossing on a 14’ Bark Greyhound, spotting swimmers and surroundings from the water. While swimming, swimmers were unassisted and did not make contact with the guide boat or paddle board.
All swimmers joined in on the final leg of the swim to make landfall on the beach of Dories Cove on Block Island.
Additional Details: Phase 1 was to swim as far off Montauk Point as possible towards Dickens Point on Block Island before the currents set us North of our charted course. We then got set North as the flood tide pushed us up in to the Block Island Sound as planned (see waypoint (2) & (3) on chart). Phase 2 was to catch the ebb tide out of the Block Island Sound to reset us on our line so we could finish on the west side of Block Island without getting swept too far to the south. We ended up catching that current around waypoint (4). We finished the swim by dropping down in to Dories Cove on Block Island. The toughest section of the swim was in and around waypoint (3) where we battled a counter current for 45 min - 1 hr. Once we punched through that section, we were back on track and began making headway again towards Block Island to complete the swim.
Special Note: We encountered 20-30 dolphin in the mid section of the swim checking us out and jumping within 20 yards of paddler, swimmer and guide boat. Swimmer, Drew Harvey, remained in the water through this event.
