Regaining balance through boating

Barrett Canfield, ultimate family man and active broker with his business South Coast Yachts, took some ‘me time’ to regain balance. Here’s how sailing helped:

I’ve been dreaming of my sailboat, the 1966 Shields I named Jane after my youngest daughter. As we are forced to simplify our lives, I think more about sailing…how it makes me feel, how it makes me think, where it takes my mind.

I rigged the boat at San Diego Yacht Club at 4pm and set sail, alone around La Playa Cove. The time aboard gliding and thinking lasted a glorious two and a half hours. I told myself I would sail until I forgot. Forgot about my troubles and the crisis that we are all living in.

As I tacked, glided, and jibed in and out of the basins and odd sections of the cove, my worries and concerns disappeared. They were replaced by beauty and wonder. The fine adjustments to the sails and the tiller put the old boat into her groove. The feel of pressure freed Her soul too.

She accelerated in the light puffs and slowed to look around in the calm. She stayed steady and did not fail to do what she was built for… to move forward and adjust to the pressure that she faced.

Sailing is one of the gifts in life I am most grateful for. When I got busy in life, I stopped sailing. I forgot that life waited for me, and was loyal and faithful aboard a sailboat.

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