When cruising off the beaten path, you’re likely to come across harbors, channels, and other waterways that aren’t well charted. In these areas, a portable depth sounder becomes a necessary tool for safe navigation and anchoring. Practical Sailor testers and well-known cruiser-authors Evans Starzinger and Beth Leonard recently had the opportunity to test and compare two such devices while voyaging the remote channels of Chile, where they often needed to sound an uncharted anchorage from the dinghy.

The two products they tested were the Norcross HawkEye Portable Sonar System (DF2200PX) and Speedtech Instruments’ handheld depth sounder. Both are designed for use aboard a dinghy, through a fiberglass or wood hull,…