Don't let the ditch scare you. It is a very nice cruise. With your draft you can make it on almost any tide. Just don't do it in the last couple hours before a minus tide. The last time I came through was after a -3 tide, I came through LaConner right at the 0 tide level. It was perfect for calibrating my depth sounder with my 6 foot draft, I dragged a little in several places, the worst was dead center between the last pair of red and green bouys at the south end of the channel where I slowed to 4 knots from 6.5 before pushing through.
On the other hand some of the worst water I've been in was when I went around the outside of Fidalgo Island heading for Kingston. It was dead calm, but there seemed to be 4 foot wind waves coming from both the North and SouthWest, plus a swell from the West. Then it got even worse where the current from the Straights split to go south into Admiralty Inlet & north to Bellingham. Then the wind came up, and with a following tide and sea, I had a great 15knot sail all the way down Admiralty Inlet.