Denise,
Here's another site like marinas.com that overlays nautical
charts over the satellite images, so you can see the depth contour
lines as well. Just click on hybrid map type and then NOAA paper and move the slider to fade in/out the NOAA chart to your liking. Found at:
GeoGarage - Route Preparation:
(marine.geogarage.com/routes .... if the hot link doesn't work)
(I'm scared of running into something hard, like the ocean floor...in my neighborhood instead of the waters being shoally, our shoals can sometimes have water around them... yikes! MS Gulf Coast is super shallow for a new sailer to get accustomed to.)