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Perhaps the best way of encountering a suitable ride is to visit popular marinas that outbound captains frequent. They are probably there for overnighting or waiting for suitable weather and winds. Or possibly they're short of crew because of some force majeure (people change their plans and get seasick and so on...) This might mean that they could actually ''need'' your hand on board.
Be helpful and interested in their trade. Even if you do not have any experience in sailing, be honest with the fact and state that you are eager to learn. Show respect towards their skills, their boat and the seas and the elements of nature. Learn aboput sailing, the races, the seasons and major routes. For example, the Azores islands out of Portugal can be a good place to get on a boat as most boats stop there on the to or back from Caribbean. There are lots of good captains out there, with good intentions. But there are lots of different "classes" of captains out there, lots of different boats for different purposes. So how do you find the good captains out from the hasty, less benign ones? Well, start by analyzing how well they care for their crew. Or their boat. How prudent they are about security. What kind of personal imbalance they might be experiencing based on their insistence on getting certain types of crew (like young, good-looking females).
Then there are some websites that can be helpful for getting the right crew and boat find each other. I would recommend Crewseekers.net [http://crewseekers.net] since FindAcrew.net [http://findacrew.net] fools either you or the captain to pay exorbitant prices for the ability to communicate.
