Originally Posted By: wildman800
Item to note: If your deep draft is 4'6", then your Navigation Draft should be about 6'. IOW, don't try to sail/motor into waters that are listed as less than 6 feet deep at mean mean low water.


Well, that's the fun part. The charts are relatively vague about the transition zones between carefully navigable - say more than 10 feet of depth at low tide - and no-go areas that are dry at low tide.

All the sloughs have radical depth changes in very small distances, and submerged obstacles [typically large tree branches and old pilings] that defeat charting. Caution and careful exploration are the keys.

As a practical matter, most of my voyages will be in areas I know well or in places outside the Delta where the chart depths are significantly beyond any point of concern.