Again, a cool morning with the furnace going, the overnight temperature dropped into the mid 40’s To make matters worse the clear skies that were forecast were hidden by a layer of clouds, but they cleared by midday and by afternoon we were up to around 55°F.
We set off early (for us) at 0930 to catch the 1100 ferry from Fort Morgan, across Mobile Bay, to Dauphin Island. Fort Morgan was about about an hour away, so we left in plenty of time as the ferry only runs every 90 minutes. We in fact made the trip in better time than we expected and arrived at the ferry landing just before 1020. We were the one an only car there which was a little ominous, then Lyn looked at the time table posted in the parking area. Her first comment was that the times on the internet were different to the time on the time table. Closer inspection revealed that the ferry coming from Dauphin Island departed at 1100 and the one going to Dauphin Island departed at 1015! Next departure at 1145! Unfortunately there was really no civilization (cafes etc) in the area, so we just hung around in the car reading.
Once on the ferry and clear of the land there was a reasonable swell rolling the boat around. Dotted throughout Mobile Bay were a number of rigs, I initially thought they were oil rigs, but we later learnt that they were natural gas rigs.
Mobile Bay Gas Rigs
Once we arrived at Dauphin Island we took a drive around the place. The Island is 17 miles long and about a mile across, I guess technically it is an island, but it appeared to be more a sand bar with roads on it. Access is by ferry, or a large bridge and causeway from Mobile. After checking the place out we dropped into one of the local cafes for a seafood lunch. Again, some tasty local shrimp.
The main purpose of the visit was to go to the estuarium. This is a display associated with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Apart from aquariums full of local gulf, bay and river life, there were some facts about Mobile Bay as well. If you look at the location and size of the bay on a map, you will see that it is at the northern end of the Gulf of Mexico, yet the average depth of the bay is only 10ft. The bay is also home to the second largest gas field in the US, and it will continue pumping natural gas for at least 30 more years. All in all it was worth the visit.
As I said earlier the island really is a pile of fine white sand, the beaches all have beach front homes on them of which at least 90% are on stilts. I guess the waters get pretty rough when hurricane season hits.
Dauphin Island – Beach Houses
Also on the island is an old fort – Fort Grimes – which was host to the last major battle of the US civil war.
We headed back to the ferry, and had another rolling ride back to the mainland. On the way back to the campsite we dropped into see friends at the place we stayed last year.
A good day out