Sailboat breaks free from mooring, crashes against bayfront as downtown St. Augustine floods
A sailboat that broke free from its mooring and was adrift in the Matanzas River near downtown St. Augustine was able to be secured Thursday morning but was still in danger of breaching the sea wall as the city flooded.
Before the Pilgrims, first Thanksgiving celebrated in St. Augustine
According to historians and archaeologists at the Florida Museum of Natural History: the Pilgrimsโ Thanksgiving came more than 50 years after Spanish explorer Pedro Menรฉndez de Avilรฉs and 800 soldiers, sailors and settlers joined local Native Americans in a feast that followed a Mass of Thanksgiving,
North Florida Land Trust pushes state to preserve Fish Island
The 57-acre property is on the Intracoastal Waterway immediately adjacent to the State Road 312 bridge onto Anastasia Island. The Land Trust said Fish Island is a healthy maritime hammock forest and preserving it will help avoid water quality impacts to the Matanzas River. North Florida Land Trust is urging the community to show support for the protection of Fish Island, an environmentally sensitive and historically significant land, prior to the cabinet's July 23 meeting in Tallahassee. Recently the St. Augustine commissioners voted unanimously to approve management of Fish Island if the state agrees to buy the property. The NFLTs posted information on its campaign to preserve Fish Island on its website.
U.S. Geological Survey photos show Hurricane Matthew beach impact
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. โ U.S. Geological Survey aerial photographs shows Hurricane Matthew cut a new inlet between the Atlantic Ocean and the Matanzas River, outside of St. Augustine. The aerial photography of Floridaโs East Coast before and after Hurricane Matthew drive home the damage. In some low-lying areas, Matthew cut islands in half, completely wiping the beach away and creating new inlets. St. Johns County has sent the state of Florida a preliminary estimate that $120 million worth of beach and dune sand was lost during the hurricane. The U.S. Geological Survey is still gathering data on Hurricane Matthew to help coastal areas become more resilient.