Australian J/122 MARTA JEAN Sailed Her Maiden Voyage recently from Sydney to Newcastle. Here's a report from Ray Entwistle - "For the start of this story we’ve borrowed the tune from an old Billy Joel song– see if you can pick it..... Its 9am on a Saturday, the south-easterly breeze is kicking in, We’re sailing up to Newcastle, the maiden voyage of the J/122 - ‘Marta Jean’. Lah de dah, de de da’ah.......... That’s the extent of our combined creative talent, so it’s back to our usual narrative. The Rae family’s pride and joy ‘Marta Jean’, a new J/122, left Greenwich Flying Squadron, west of Sydney Harbour Bridge with water and fuel tanks half full and the dockbox fitted holding the inflatable, for her maiden voyage up to her new home base, Newcastle, about 70nm north of Sydney. She had spent her first couple of months at Greenwich, nestled close by to 2 other J/122’s, Lithium and Jackpot.We motored under Sydney Harbour Bridge, past the Opera House and hoisted the mainsail in the lee of Watsons Bay. After a quick radio check reporting into Sydney Marine Rescue, 3 on board, destination Newcastle, zeroed the speedo and a few minutes later we sailed through Sydney Harbour Heads. A couple of 44 footers were half a mile ahead also heading north. Good, something to chase, even though we were in full cruising mode. ‘Marta Jean’ dipped her bows into the Tasman Sea swell and with the wind now at 16 knots over the starboard beam we surfed down the first big wave and hit 12.4 knots, with the owner Steve on the helm grinning from ear to ear and commenting “it really does what it says on the label“. We knew it was going to be a nice days sailing. Manly and Dee Why beaches soon slid past and within the hour we were clearing Long Reef - the other two larger yachts we had passed were already specks in the rear view. Twenty five miles further north we radioed to Gosford Marine Rescue, it was almost midday and we were making great time. We tested the auto pilot in the two metre swell but not for long, we were having too good a time surfing down the waves at the wheel.
Averaging over eight knots, we soon found ourselves checking in with the chirpy Swansea Marine Rescue on the shores of beautiful Lake Macquarie, as we continued to surge north. We were already 75% through our journey. We were now sailing through all the gigantic coal ships which were at anchor waiting for their turn to be called into port to take their precious loads to all parts of Asia. We were also pushing 2 knots of the Australian eastern current but with the wind dropping to 12 knots and swinging a little more south we hoisted the spinnaker and sped towards Nobby’s Head beach. Nobby’s Head was made famous when the giant coal carrier “Pasha Bulker “made global news when she grounded on the beach in a huge winter storm in June 2007. After gybing a few angles we dropped the spinnaker and sailed into Newcastle Harbour on a twenty knot squall hitting 12.3 knots and being amused by the fact that we had finished as we started. We found ‘Marta Jeans’ new pen and checked our watch and instruments. We covered the 70.8 n.miles in eight and a half hours averaging 8.35 knots. Ten minutes later we were sat in the new Newcastle Yacht Club with a well earned beer in hand and watched a rain squall cover the harbour, wondering how far back the other two boats were that started their journey just ahead of us from Sydney.