Changes

Be aware of the huge and important differences between hitchhiking a boat and hitchhiking a car. Unless you've been invited aboard a rich person's superyacht, you will almost always be expected to help out with various kinds of workon a boat, and you will usually also be asked to pay your share of food and maybe other expenses too (see "Requirements" below). Getting on a stranger's boat is also much bigger commitment than hopping in a car, for both you and for the captain - if you're a week's sail out into the open ocean (or even an hour off the coast), getting out of the vehicle on short notice is not an option.

To make sure you don't come off as naive and entitled to boat captains, first read [http://www.yachtmollymawk.com/2011/03/hitch-hiking-across-the-atlantic/ this article] about boat hitchhiking from a cynical captain's point of view. But don't get discouraged: Next, start following a Facebook group [https://www.facebook.com/groups/sailboatyacht/ like this one] and watch some captains agreeing and others disagreeing with his attitude. The take-home message is that there are almost as many types of captains as regular people, and nothing is impossible, as long you're prepared to approach the world of boats with a hard-working and humble attitude.