Drew Nemetz tackles the marathon swim as an endurance challenge and to bring awareness to water quality in Long Island Sound
Photos courtesy of Drew Nemetz
The morning starts at 4 a.m. for Drew Nemetz with routine and rituals. On any given day he can be found managing his sandwich shop, picking up his twin girls from school, or settling in to read them a story. It’s a packed schedule for this small business owner and family man, not to mention the swimming. He’s also an avid swimmer who is taking on the English Channel swim in October.
Last spring, Drew began training for the endurance event, and if he’s not at the shop or juggling childcare with his wife, Frannie Willsey, he’s swimming. After tidying the house and feeding the cats, he’s in the water, usually off Oakland Beach in Rye by 5 a.m. for a pre-sunrise workout in the Long Island Sound.
“It’s a little early for a lot of people, but it’s really the only time that I have to myself and time to train. I try to swim for at least two hours and try to max out my yardage, and from there I get to work around 7:45 a.m.,” he said. From there he’s off to Alpen Pantry—the business that the couple own — in downtown Old Greenwich to make sandwiches and stock shelves. After returning home around 6 p.m. followed by dinner and story time, he’s in bed by 10 p.m. and in Groundhog Day fashion the day begins again.
While crossing the English Channel is a personal goal, Drew is also using the event to raise money for Save the Sound and to raise awareness for clean water in the Sound.
“I chose Save the Sound (as a cause) because it’s where I and a bunch of my friends all swim in the water. This is local and close to my heart. A lot of us grew up in the area on Long Island Sound,” he said. “It’s pretty much our swimming pool that we want to see stay open. You don’t want to be told that, `oh, you can’t go swimming because of high bacteria or there’s trash.”
The event itself combines challenges of frigid water temperatures hovering in the low 60s (57°F to 63°F in October), choppy waves, an exhausting distance of 21 miles from England’s Dover area to the Calais/Cap Gris-Nez in France, not to mention stringent rules that includes no wetsuits. Since the first official crossing in 1875 by English navy merchant captain Matthew Webb, only 2,100 solo crossings have been recorded, according to the Channel Swimming Association. It’s also the 100th anniversary of the first woman who swam the channel, Gertrude Ederle who crossed the Channel on August 6,1926.
Drew is forecasting a swimming time of between 12 to 16 hours.
Back at home in Port Chester, he’s part of an avid group of swimmers who swim year-round from Oakland Beach in Rye, NY, many of whom have successfully completed ultra endurance swims including the 20 Bridges Swim Around Manhattan, the English Channel and one who is going to swim the Santa Catalina Channel Swim in California later this month. All three are part of the “triple crown.”
Water was always part of his growing up in Greenwich. His memories of the Sound include along with his brother wading in the water, catching minnows, fishing or bodyboarding.
He’s also a lifelong swimmer and was a member of Greenwich High School’s swim team and attended college on a swimming scholarship. In 2001 he stopped swimming for about 20 years and started up again around the time of the pandemic and when his twin girls were born.
He started swimming with the adult Masters team at the YMCA
of Greenwich, where he connected with open water swimmers and began joining
them at Oakland Beach. They swim in rain and snow and in water temperatures
that dip into the low 30s. Many
have become close friends and unofficial mentors to Drew.
The annual Greenwich Point One Mile Swim in 2023 and subsequent events, including the Around the Sound swim in Bermuda, ignited his passion for open water swimming. He became a regular competitor at the Memphremagog Winter Swimming Festival in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont where he won top medals in various events.
After achieving the Manhattan Marathon Swim (known as 20 Bridges) in eight hours and 24 minutes, he had his eyes set on the “triple crown.” In 2026 he was able to get his name on the list for the English Channel and began avidly training.
Peter Linderoth, director of healthy waters and lands, met Drew at his sandwich shop during the Old Greenwich Merchant Association’s annual First Light evening. He quickly found they had a lot in common and subsequently engaged in many discussions on Long Island Sound water quality. Peter is part of Drew’s crew for his upcoming swim across the English Channel and is charged with providing Drew food and water during the swim and keeping him on schedule.
“Drew’s commitment to a cleaner Long Island Sound now and for future generations is admirable. He is a strong environmental steward of this beautiful estuary we all share,” Peter said. “His swim across the English Channel this fall is a phenomenal feat and Save the Sound is grateful that he selected us as the beneficiary of fundraising efforts that will contribute to the restoration and preservation of Long Island Sound water quality.”
“Sometimes you just take water quality for granted but as a
swimmer, you don’t take it for granted,” Drew said. He’s keenly aware of the
dangers of stormwater runoff, and he and fellow swimmers closely monitor beach
grades and daily conditions before heading into the water.
Now with less than two months to his Channel swim, Drew has ramped up his
training, clocking in some as much as 50,000 yards a week, which includes
supplementing pool workouts at the Greenwich YMCA.
In late September, he and his crew will board a plane for London where they will catch a train to Dover, stay in the village of Folkestone, and wait for the green light to tackle the channel within a four-day window. He will board the Masterpiece a boat chartered by father and son co-captains Fred and Harry Mardle.
He visualizes swimming and landing on a sandy beach near Calais/Cap Gris-Nez in France although a friend who tackled the Channel ended up landing on a bunch of “seaweed covered rock.”
“It depends on where you land. Some people end up in the sand. I’ve seen people end up right by the café,” he said. “Everyone’s swim is different and you never know where you will end up.”
What is certain is that Drew remains committed to open-water swimming—and to advocating for the clean water that makes it possible.
“I look at Long Island Sound every single day and I know a lot of people do the same. If the Sound isn’t accessible or open for people to go swimming it’ll be disappointing,” he said. “That’s why I thought that I could raise money for Save the Sound and bring awareness to issues that are happening with Long Island Sound and the surrounding waters that feed into it. I think I could bring a little bit better into the world.”
Click here to support Drew and Save the Sound.
