I
was delighted to be invited to the
Scottish Traditional Boat Festival,
held every June in Portsoy, on the
Moray coast. This year there was to be
a Viking theme, with members of the
Lerwick Up Helly Aa Jarl Squads and
Shetland fi ddlers; I was to talk about
my Shetland-set crime novels. It was a
wonderful weekend for boat-lovers,
music lovers and families – if you’ve
never been, put Midsummer Weekend
in Portsoy in your diary for next year!Readers’ cruising destinations, near and far
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write to the address at the top of page 5Marsali Taylor reports
from the Scottish
Traditional Boat Festival
on the Moray coast
Portsoy
in pictures
ABOVE Vikings
arrive: the Lerwick
Up Helly Aa Jarl
Squad.
FAR LEFT Portsoy’s
two harbours are
overlooked by a
dolphin statue by
local sculptor Carn
Standing.
BOTTOM LEFT The
old, western harbour
is drying, and the
New Harbour is
all-tides. The drying
harbour reminded me
of my youth near
Fisherrow, when the
harbour was fi lled
with traditional
wooden boats. There
were three smaller
Fifi e-style boats
along one side:
Marean (1949),
Fruitful (1955) and
White Wing (a 1917
Baldie, the smallest
of the Fifi e class).
LEFT The 45ft
Isabella Fortuna
(1945), a former
line- and drift-net
fi shing boat built in
Arbroath, but now
maintained by
enthusiastic
volunteers in Wick.
The former hold has
been beautifully
adapted to berths
and a galley in
varnished wood.