Maritime Expert David Martin’s Approach
Preparation
With practice, even last-minute travel invitations can be met with a logical order of thought to boost your own safety and success. Remain mindful of seasonal swings in weather, elevation, and temperature differences from your home conditions. Research your destination and host expectations. Do not rely entirely on one person in your group to figure out the details so that you can “just show up.”
Even though you may travel on short notice as a guest of a trusted host, find time to get hands on with a chart, map, any source of computer-based orientation to get the lay of the land, or in this case, an ocean involving a border crossing into Mexico. Working in reverse order from my destination, I’d create my itinerary to share back home with those tracking my travels. Next, I’d assemble a compact carry in a Watershed bag of essential documents, licenses, passport, insurance cards, and required forms of ID to ensure safe passage along the water or overland route, including cash.
Moving to communications and navigation, think
