How best to map a large chain of connected lakes?

I want to map a chain of 17 connected lakes ranging in size from about 50 - 1000 acres individually and about 3500 acres total.  Because of how the chain is laid out, it would fit inside a grid of about 4 miles x 5 miles or about 20 square miles.  Ideally, I'd like to include the connecting channels - most are short, but some are up to a half mile long - but not at the expense of complicating the autochart mapping process.  My only autochart experience has been to map another single lake using the 8 hours of internal memory, so I don't know much.  My questions: Can I attempt to map the whole chain (connecting channels and all) as if it were one lake?  Or should I map each individual lake separately and have a separate file for each lake?  Or map it some other way?  Ambitious project, I know, but I'm retired.  Thanks for any help!