We left Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores around 6:45 on Wednesday morning, headed for Petit Bois, the island just West of Dauphin Island. The winds had also been favorable to start travel on Tuesday, but we decided to wait because the weather prediction indicated three foot waves around Dauphin Island. Since its just an average I worried they'd end up much higher. For Wednesday, the Dauphin Island weather station was predicting waves around 1.8 feet mid-day (when we expected to get there) and going down. And it looked like we'd have favorable wind for three days, which made for a great weather window.
There was no wind when we started and the ICW was like glass. 
When we got to Mobile Bay (about an hour later), it was pretty calm too. A far cry from what we experienced in February on our way East!
We had thought we might put up the sails through Mobile Bay, but the wind was still pretty light. Plus, the charts showed shallow water along the channel which would not give us room to maneuver. And once we entered the bay, we found that even part of the marked channel was setting off our low water alarm (which goes off at about six feet--we have a 4 foot ten inch draft). As we passed a tug pushing a barge and made passing arrangements with it, I reflected on all the VHF radio calls we've overheard these last months. Its like a window into boating culture. Sometimes its a radio check (which you aren't supposed to do on channel 16 but people do), or often its a call for a passing arrangement. There's no road rage, everyone seems to know what ought to happen and defers to that. They refer to each other as captain. "Go ahead captain." Its obvious at times that the captains know each other because they joke. Its pretty much exclusively men. And although I learned about a one whistle and two whistle pass for a case at work years ago, I finally feel like I understand what he means when a captain says to another "I'll see you on the one."
Anyway! As we continued through Mobile Bay we had to decide whether to continue motoring under the Bridge on the North Side of Dauphin Island, against a current and through a narrow channel that would preclude us from sailing, or go out into the Gulf and stay on the South side of the islands. Jason decided to head out into the Gulf. We passed by an old abandoned light house. 
We passed a big vessel coming the opposite way and put up our sails (which requires us to head up into the wind). When we fell off (turned away from the wind) onto our course, the vessel had turned around! Weird. Maybe it was dredging? No close call on a collision, thank goodness.
We were making good speed with the wind and we were pretty close to a beam reach (comfortable point of sail with minimal heeling), but the swells were bigger than expected and I was not really enjoying that. We got out sandwiches for lunch and when I took a bite of my PBJ I couldn't even swallow it. Blegh. Spit it overboard. I was obviously sea sick. I took some dramamine and laid down on the floor of the cockpit until it kicked in. The waves were coming at us from the beam and I am pretty sure we were getting the occasional five or six footer. It wasn't objectively scary I suppose--it wasn't erratic and things weren't sliding all over the deck like in Destin. But when you see the wave crest even with the deck of the boat while you're in a trough--I just don't like it. When I hear other sailors tell of waves 15 feet high I'm like--what???!? That is nuts. I cannot even imagine it.
One interesting thing we experienced in the Gulf was a fog signal on a platform. There are a ton of oil platforms in the area. I don't know if they are working or abandoned or what. Some structures are quite small. At least some of them are equipped with horns that go off when you get close, which are intended to serve as a warning to vessels in low visibility conditions.
All in all, we were making good time. And although I was not loving the waves, we decided we could make it a little farther to Horn Island, which would make Thursday a shorter day. I was looking forward to crossing to the North side of the islands--with winds from the South, we'd be protected from the waves on the North side. After that, we made our way to a nice spot North of Horn Island--a little farther West than on the way out--and anchored for the night. There was another smaller sailboat that ended up anchoring for the night too, though too far away for us to get a good look at who was on board. We settled in about 6pm. Phew.