Those who see sailing as an escape from reality have got their understanding of both sailing and reality completely backwards. Sailing is not an escape, but a return to and a confrontation of a reality from which modern civilization is itself an escape.
For centuries, man suffered from the reality of an earth that was too dark or too hot or too cold for his comfort, and to escape this he invented complex systems of lighting, heating and air conditioning. Sailing rejects these and returns to the old realities of dark and heat and cold.
Modern civilization has found radio, TV, movies, nightclubs and a huge variety of mechanized entertainment to titillate our senses and help us escape from the apparent boredom of the earth and the sun and wind and stars. Sailing returns to these ancient realities.

-Robert Prisig