Mariners in Nelson’s early days, well…..

…well..…..back then…...they sure had a tough lot entering the “treasured and  protected waters” of the Nelson Haven. After all for reasons like such, it was selected as one of the NZ Company’s first settlements.

Unfortunately a big challenge……..as you can most certainly see from this “low tide” shot above, its quite obvious that without depth sounders their job would surely have been quite a bit more difficult than today.

Let me tell you “easy” to enter wasn’t always the case, as the above graphic and story from The Prow website will most certainly atest too.

Different than now, back then there was only the one entry point.

So photos, like the one above of the 5 star luxury cruise ship “The World” entering the Nelson Haven through “The Cut” would have…well to put it simply….would have been impossible!

Unfortunately many shipwrecks provide the proof that this was indeed the case.

The above photo shows the area just within the Haven, and in this particular example its plain to see its high tide outside the Boatshed and BoatHouse Restaurants.

In the immediate foreground, where the blue First Choice with-in 200km sign is, is the yacht club rooms which can also be hired out.

Which obviously now in the early evening, have been.

Guess the paying guests were expecting a nice seaside time/water view…..but in reality they should have been there 6 hours earlier.

Conference organisers take note – if you are planning a conference from a base in Nelson please pick the time of the month, and then the time of the day that will demonstrate our seashore to its best. [water filled is what I’m talkin’ about here]

Your paying guests deserve a “high tide.” Otherwise you might risk some group members being unhappy with the experience and that’s not something to write home about, or have as a testimonial….now, is it?

Contrast that low tide with the aforementioned high tide, and for you yourself, its not hard to see what those early mariners where up against.

At that stage, Nelson with its approx. 4m odd tidal range would be about as attractive to a new mariner as Wellington Airport is today to a new commercial aviation pilot.

But pick the right time…….and yet, even on this very low low tide of 2010 local fishing boat owners can still easily navigate their way out to the open sea, as this large Sealord fishing boat is demonstrating on the same day these photos were taken.