Sailing For Sanity

What keeps folks sailing, even after the days where the head clogs, the furling jams, the new handheld GPS decides to show it can sink like the Dow, and we swear to the heavens that we will never, ever go out again?

We here at Latitude 38 go sailing for lots of conscious reasons, and suspect there are also a few subconscious ones too. We’re referring to the element of spiritual rejuvenation — ‘recreation’ in the most fundamental sense of the word — that one feels after a day on the water.

We bring this up for a couple of reasons. One, because it might help us all get through the rough economic seas we’re sailing in, and two, because it’s a great holiday gift. And while we obviously don’t know how to fix everything that’s wrong with the world and our economy, or how much worse it’s going to get, we have one suggestion when it comes to the belt-tightening we’re all facing — don’t cut sailing out of your life. In fact, plan to do a bit more of whatever kind of sailing keeps you buoyant. The price of everything else might be going up, but the wind is still free, and even packing a bunch of lunches for some sailing therapy will cost less than an hour with a shrink.

If you need put a label on why you’re going out, call it ‘escape’. Call it ‘releasing the pressure valve’, ‘recharging the batteries’ or ‘temporary insanity’. Call it what you will, but make sure you make it happen — and don’t go alone. Take your wife or husband. Take the kids. Take your friends. Take your friends’ kids. Take people out who have never been sailing before: the next-door neighbor, your co-workers. How about those nice folks you see at the coffee shop every morning? How about the in-laws coming in for the holidays?

Take them all out for a sail. Put smiles on every face. It’ll be a holiday gift they’ll remember forever, and so will you. While it may not get us to the light at the end of the tunnel any faster, at least it’s a little soulshine for the journey.

With that, we wish you a happy holiday season and a prosperous new year. We’ll be taking a break from ‘Lectronic Latitude until December 29 — we’ve got some sailing to do!