The Isabella Fortuna visited the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy held on 8-9 July 2006 and her arrival was featured as a lead item in BBC Scotland's 'Reporting Scotland' news. The following day Grampian Television provided coverage of a Norwegian choir who used the boat as a platform for their performances of sea shanties and traditional songs.

Skippered by Malcolm Bremner, with Adam Miller, Tony Sinclair and James Bruce as crew, the vessel left Wick on Thursday 6 July.
Wick Society's Boat Club members Andy Anderson and John Houston augmented the 'crew' to welcome a continuous flow of visitors, including The Lord Lieutenant of Banffshire, Mrs Clare Russell. Visitors of all ages were keen to experience something of what life was like on a fishing boat in the 19^th Century and learn of the restoration process that has brought the vessel a new lease of life.

The crew were encouraged to meet up with Hobson Rankin, who bought the vessel in 1977 when her fishing days were over, and began the work of restoration. Together with co-owner Michael May, he sold the Isabella Fortuna to The Wick Society in 1997 and donated his share of the proceeds back to The Society to assist them in using the boat to promote the rich heritage of Wick's fishing industry. Mr Rankin was delighted to see how successful the restoration project has been and how the venture is helping Wick.

The Reaper, from the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther, was also at the Festival and the crews of both historic vessels enjoyed a good interchange of ideas.

The return trip to Wick included a visit to Buckie so that practical links could be established as a prelude to the 'Moray Firth Flotilla 2007 - an event that will involved a number of ports. Bad weather prevented visits to other harbours around the Firth.

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