Setting sail a sentimental boat
Brier Island grandfather, grandson launch buoy boat into the ocean
Tom Albright used to be a lobster fisherman before he got sick with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
The lung disease is stealing his breath. It has ended his career.
But not his love for the water. Enter his grandson Tegan Theriault and a new way to enjoy and share that love of the sea.
Using fishing buoys, Albright and his grandson created their own fishing boats.
“It started as a way for us to spend more time together while we can,” said Albright.
They’ve made more than 100 boats in Albright’s home in Brier Island, Digby County, since they started the project two years ago. In the summer months, Theriault pedals his golf cart wagon full of buoy boats down to the shore and sells them to tourists.
One of the first boats they handmade, they named Mr. TNT, representing Theriault’s initials and his favourite song, “TNT” by ACDC.
On March 25, grandfather and grandson set the boat off to sail the ocean from the Brier Island shore.
“We knew we wanted to (sail) it for a while, but we didn’t get a chance to set it afloat until this year.”
They tied a message in a bottle to the buoy-boat, asking anyone who finds the message to contact them through their Facebook page: Mr TNT, Let’s Keep This Boat Afloat. They’re hoping if anyone finds it, they will let the boat go and they can continue tracking its movements.