How to Hitchhike Boats
Hitchhiking a boat, especially for the first time, can be a daunting experience. Just the idea of crossing the ocean or a piece of the ocean with another person can be a scary idea. Here are some tips to be able to hitchhike a ride on a boat and have a good time in the process.
If you spend enough time on the docks no matter whether you follow any of these tips or not you'll find something to get you somewhere, a big part of the game is just putting in the time and walking the docks. These tips will help though.
1. Look presentable. The majority of people that own yachts and ships are people that have money and they want to be around other people that at least take care of themselves physically.
2. Smile. We all want to be around fun and fun-loving people smile at the people you are interacting with and enjoy the interactions just for what they are and interaction not necessarily because you need something out of another person. Many times people of helped me after they've told me that I can't go on their ship or that they wouldn't be able to help me in any way just because they saw that I was genuinely interested in them.
3. Get some boating experience. Something people will ask you all the time is do you have experience on boats this is an important question for three reasons number one to understand whether you can sail and whether you know about knots and winds and general boat navigation and steering (220 Degree course), they will also know whether you will be seasick and number two to whether in an emergency situation will you be able to keep your head and keep calm.
4. Get yourself some boating gear. This can be easily purchased at almost any sporting store. Get a waterproof jacket waterproof pants some waterproof gloves and possibly some shoes. You cando without all of these things but these will be nice and you will enjoy them.
5 Keep going to the dock and the peer and bars around that area, keep talking to everyone you come in contact with and keep posting posters. One of the things you will want to do when you get to a place that you can hitchhike is to post up posters in different places around the Marina that have your face your name if you have any experience in boating and your details with which people can get in contact with you on the sheet of paper this way people will know who you are and if they want crew or need crew they will be able to get in contact with you.
The major Atlantic Crossing Routes are the following:
November to February coming down from England and the West coast of France to Portugal and Gibraltar and from the Mediterranean out into Gibraltar.almost all ships will stop at a different points in the Canaries or on top of that all ships bound to South America or the Caribbean will stop in the Canaries and most ships that go directly to South America will stop in cop that.
Atlantic crossing from North America to Europe
this is usually done from March or April until November and the usual crossing is from the Bahamas to the Azores and then to the coast of Portugal or Spain.
