Escuminac fishermen Gary Robichaud celebrated not one, but two rare finds in his lobster traps Tuesday. After finding a rare bright blue lobster in a trap, the crew, made up of his three sons discovered an even rarer calico coloured lobster in another trap 15 minutes later.
“It’s never happened to me,” he said of catching two rare coloured lobsters on the same day.
But Robichaud said he will take it all as signs of the good luck he’s been experiencing including how things fell into place during the rescue of a 10-year-old boy May 29.
That evening, the fisherman, who lives close to the Escuminac Wharf, received a call from the owners of the nearby campground asking him for help to rescue a young boy.
“He was on the water with a rubber raft and the wind was taking him away.”
Robichaud, his son, Zachary, brother-in-law Wilfred Poirier, and friend Joe Gallant rushed to the wharf and by the time he had the boat started, they had the ropes untied.
“Luckily when we got to the wharf there were no boats tied on to me.”
They rushed out to where they could see the raft but Robichaud said there was no one in it.
“It was rolling in the wind.”
Fearing the worst, Robichaud said his son Zachary spotted something a bit closer to the shore.
“We rushed there and it was him. He was frozen, he could barely move. He could barely keep afloat. He said, ‘Save me, save me, I’m drowning’.”
A life ring was thrown to the child and he was lifted into the boat, wrapped in a rubber coat and rushed to shore to a waiting ambulance.
“We saved him by seconds, not minutes. He was done.”
Robichaud said the boy has recovered and he called the fisherman Saturday to thank him for rescuing him.
