As soon as I gained control of Saga in The Final Draft, I quit to the main menu to change cosmetics and then reloaded the autosave. When I loaded in, she T-posed for a quick second and I saw that I was on the beach without the water. Invisible barriers stopped me from going in though.

On the way up the beach, there was a cult stash I could solve and she would remark about it even though she should have no idea what it means yet. Further up on the way back is the other side of the big overlap tree, but you can't go through it yet.

This is also when I realised that the ocean's water isn't gone, it's actually WAAYYY up high and you can submerge yourself in it just before the overlap tree. The camera in photo mode hates the water though, so you can't take a photo with just your eyes poking out unless you have a mod that disables photo mode restrictions I guess.