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One of the very first things I learned about sailing, before my age was even into two digits, was that if you are going out sailing for fun, you ALWAYS sail upwind from your departure-and-return point. There is more than one reason for this.
One, of course, is that if something goes wrong or breaks on your boat, you will, in the worst case scenario, at least be able to drift back downwind to "home base" -- or at least wave frantically for help as you drift by, so someone can come out and rescue you.
Another reason is that if you are a novice sailor, sailing to windward to get to your destination can be one of the most difficult things to do -- so do the hard part FIRST, by sailing upwind away from your departure point. Then if you fail at it, you can still get back without having to ask a jet ski for a tow.
A third reason is that, although the weather might be beautiful when you leave shore, a storm might come up suddenly with high winds and suddenly whipped-up waves that make it very difficult to get back if you have to slog through that upwind. If you are already upwind of your return point, you can come back WITH the wind, which is much less stressful. And if the wind is REALLY bad, you can head up and drop your main and come back downwind on jib alone -- or even on bare spar, if necessary.
But what do you do if the wind is blowing offshore? If you are sailing on a small inland lake where you will, in the worst-case scenario, end up on the opposite shore, it is not anything major to worry about, except for how to get yourselves and your boat back to home base.
However, if you are sailing on open water with no friendly shore on the other side, the prudent thing to do is to reach back and forth, parallel to shore and stay fairly close to shore. You also should take any current into consideration. If there is a current going parallel with the shore, with an offshore wind you would want to sail against the current so that if something goes awry, the current will at least be helping you to get laterally back toward your home base.
This advice about current would also apply if the wind is straight onshore. You will have a choice of tacks to go upwind from shore in this case, so the best course would be to take the tack that goes against the current. If you plan to be out for an extended period of time, you should be aware of when the tide changes are, so that you can make sure you try to stay "uptide" from your return point.
In other words, every time you leave the beach, leave the dock, leave the harbor, keep in mind what it would be like to have to return to that spot if you had to paddle, and then head in the direction that will make that paddle home the easiest.