What he said. My experience was similar, however I started right away sailing out of the engineers' union hall. Took a couple of months to get that first berth, but milked it for 90 days. I was NOT as focused on work as I should have been and ended up taking an SIU job on ocean tugs where I was SUPPOSED to be working roughly 9 weeks on and 6 weeks off, with about three days every three weeks back in the states (Louisiana, where I moved to), but spent those days working maintenance. In reality, I rarely got more than a month off at any given time, but I was single and it really didn't matter. On those boats, with the overtime for engineers (often the only engineer) I was usually the youngest onboard and the highest paid. I left there to sail Chief Engineer on an early Articulated Tug Barge (ATB) where I eventually worked an even time schedule, but like most things, I ended up working about 8 to 9 months a year. Money was very good for the time. I did fall into a treasure hunting gig (was living in South Florida at the time) and that gave me a bit of extra dough and kept me off of the streets. My last seagoing gig was probably my worst. The ATB was sold and the new owners wanted their own personnel, but DID offer me temporary employment to train their guys. . . I turned it down. Went to work as assistant engineer on a very odd vessel (that no longer exists) where the schedule was even time, however you worked with the same crew. That meant that if you didn't get relieved, you worked until you were. Then you came back with your regular crew, so at times you maybe got a week or two at home. No extra pay for the extra days since it was a salary job (as opposed to the others where I was paid by the day that I sailed). The idea being that if, at the end of the year, you worked more than 6 months, you were paid the extra. By that time I was married and my son was born right before my last hitch. . . I didn't last more than 6 months there and came ashore.
I have been ashore now for some 30 years and am still in the maritime/offshore/energy field. Overall, my life has been far less ordinary than what it would have been if I attended a "regular" college and I have no regrets.