If you are a lover of quarrying, Texada Island is an exceptional destination. Lying along the middle of the Georgia Strait, the island, resembling a diminutive Vancouver Island wannabe, boasts vast limestone mining operations, timbering, and the unexpected Texada Boat Club at Sturt Bay.

Texada was named for the Spanish rear admiral Felix de Tejada in 1791, and later discovered to be rich in minerals (and spirits) including iron, copper, gold, lime and, notably during US prohibition, Canadian whiskey for smuggling. Our approach along the eastern shore to Sturt Bay passed Whiskey Still Creek.

Here we had striking views to the mainland where the coastal mountains of B.C. look as though they were created by Dr. Seuss, with slopes uppery sloping, pointy peaks in pairs, and mountain tops like hats on bears.

The friendly Texada Boating Club offers transient moorage on sturdy floats in 10 fathoms. No power, scant fresh water and many congenial boaters greeted Jupiter at the Boat Club dock. The facilities here are kept up entirely by club volunteers, with maintenance costs covered by the moorage fees of passing boaters like ourselves.

Sturt Bay, which name must be the result of a couple of mainlanders who rowed across one dark night to steal a couple of vowels and a consonant from an otherwise good English name, is home to the outstretched village of Van Anda – population seventy.

Extraction of minerals over the centuries has resulted in a culture of excavation and soil shifting rarely observed. Natural geography is never good enough for a Texadian, and the joy of earthmoving is evident at every turning.

On Texada heavy equipment, ancient and modern repose and bull dose, leaving no stone unturned.

“One who can move mountains start with the little stones”

Confucius