Recommendation for navigating new water (Galveston)

Hi, I am fishing in new waters in Galveston bay. I've never fished or navigated my boat there before. in my home water in Rockport, I have saved navigation tracks over the years and am comfortable following previous tracks on the Humminbird GPS to get to my fishing spots.

Questions:
-I plan on fishing new water like Galveston bay, and want to be able to safely navigate the waters. I have purchased the hook-n-line maps and can follow the intercoastal wateray and also have the Navionics for that area. However, there I have no tracks for areas outside of the ICW. Are there sites or apps that I can download other people's tracks?
-What is the best app? I see there is i-boating, fishing status, charts.noaa. What's your recommendation?
-Any other suggestions on how to get on new waters and safely navigating it outside of the ICW?

Thanks,

Not sure how old your Navionics card is but I recommend updating the card with freshest data from the Navionics site. Also you may want to download the Navionics Smartphone App it is well worth the Nine bucks. A quick screen shot of Galv Bay from my phone app...The app also has tide charts and weather.

if you stay in east bay you won't have a problem. if in galveston bay around san leon, watch for reefs west of the ICW. if in west bay watch for reefs everywhere. go slow untill you lay down a track and pay close attention to your gps.

Look at iSailor for iPh

Keep your eyes open, waves change shape and direction around reefs and bars. If you look up ahead and see a white bottom, not where you want to be.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, especially for the Navionics app suggestion by "salty". I downloaded it and found that with Sonar mode on, you can plan your trip and have the system auto-route you through known waterways. Where you exit the known waterways, it highlights the route as red-dash so that you can be cautious.

it is so powerful that I will not upgrade my Navionics card on the Humminbird and will opt for getting an Ipad mount for the boat and using the ipad as my main navigation tool.

I'll let you all know how that works out. If you have any other suggestions, please post. The technology available is getting better and better each day.

Thanks again.

Avoid spots where birds are walking.

avoid where ripples are rebounding and you can't tell why.....

Timmy,
On the Ipad mount for the dash, I did this in one of my boats couple years ago and it worked great. I put the IPad in a lifeproof case, then bought the Lifeproof cradle that I used my flush mount hole in my dash where I had removed a smaller unit before Ram mounting a larger Humminbird on the side of the console. I used the app for mapping with all of the added features that cannot be done on a chartplotter. I was very happy with the setup.

Thanks Corey, I'll check out the Lifeproof cradle. The dash mount I bought from Amazon was too weak to handle the bay waves.
Tim

Timmy, which model Humminbird do you have?
I just bought a Helix 5 Sonar GPS and am researching the same stuff for Port Oconnor/Sea Drift area.

I got. 698ci with side imaging. It works well but may be overkill in the 3 ft of water that I generally fish. I'd recommend the navionics app. It routed my paths and I got out of there without grounding my boat. Worth it.
Good luck
Tim

THanks