Check the Ferry Before You Drive Twenty-Two Miles to Catch It

The Mobile Bay Ferry carries vehicles and foot passengers across the mouth of Mobile Bay between Fort Morgan, at the western end of the Gulf Shores peninsula, and Dauphin Island. Two vessels work the route, the Fort Morgan and the Marissa Mae Nicole, with at least one operating year-round and both running through the busy summer months.

Departures from the Fort Morgan side have typically begun around eight in the morning and run at roughly ninety-minute intervals into the early evening, with the Dauphin Island side starting about three quarters of an hour later.

The part that catches people out

The service stops in weather. Sailings are suspended when winds exceed about thirty-five miles an hour or seas run above six feet, which on this coast is an ordinary winter day and a plausible one in any season. The crossing has also been out of service for extended periods in the past for reasons unconnected to the weather.

So the instruction is simple and it is not optional: check on the morning you intend to travel, through the operator's own channels, before you drive twenty-two miles down Highway 180 to the terminal.

Plan it so a cancellation costs you nothing

The fort, the beaches and the birding at the end of the peninsula are worth the drive whether or not the boat runs. Treat the crossing as a bonus and the day survives either outcome.

If you do cross, consider going both ways rather than looping. A one-way plan that depends on a return sailing leaves you facing a long drive round through Mobile if the afternoon weather turns.

What is on the other side

Dauphin Island is quieter and lower-rise than the Alabama beach strip. Fort Gaines at its eastern end is the other half of the 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay story — the two forts faced each other across the channel your ferry is crossing, which is the only way that history makes geographic sense. The island's bird sanctuary is a well-known migration stopover, and the Sea Lab's public aquarium covers the estuary and the Gulf.

Fares are charged separately for vehicles and foot passengers and are set by the operator. Confirm current rates and the day's sailing times before you set out.