I woke the next morning my headache and the ordeal it always entailed over and done with. I packed mostly weapons and food. My fingers traced the curved patterns of my sword's handle. It was a bit bulky not to mention old-fashioned to take along and I decided to leave it behind. I turned away, but then turned back and picked it up.
Old-fashioned or not a sword was likely to be a handy thing to have around in an apocalyptic typesetting such as the US had fallen into. My pack ready I gave my little home one final glance. Time to go and get a woman.
I had to admit to a certain amount of pleasurable excitement at the prospect of bringing a woman back to my island. She was likely to be more trouble than she was worth, but I was committed to the task regardless now.
I ducked under the camouflage netting I had woven over a small jetty along the shore and tossed my pack into my small, but sturdily built sail craft. I hopped in and threw off the mooring lines and pulled out the oars, as I began to back slice my craft out from the shoreline into the more turbulent waters of the breakers ahead.
It was a bit of a struggle, but I made it eventually out into more open waters. It wasn't the first time I had gone out in my boat. I'd explored the other islands near to me and I'd done a good bit of deep-sea fishing in order to add variety to my diet and for lack of have anything else better to do.
The breeze was in my favor so I stored the oars away and let out the sail. The sale was constructed of the parachute material from when I had been dumped on the island five years previous and the care packages that I had received for three years. It was a little tattered, but it would still do for a few sails yet.
I stepped back into the tail of the boat and manned the rudder, as the sails slapped and caught the breeze. The boat took off at a good clip and I sat back against the stern smiling to myself, as I caught sight of my sword strapped to my pack. Time to go a' Viking and rescue a damsel in distress.
My ocean voyage was an uneventful one, which I was grateful to experience, in these often turbulent waters. I put ashore just north of Vancouver by my calculations. It was eerie not seeing any lights at all along the coastline.