I have a couple of observations:
1. The ocean is big and bad and oceangoing vessels are peopled with a very special sort of lunatic.
2. Even if someone dangles the prospect of free passage around the world by ship, don't take it. There's a reason it's free.
3. There's a reason why great seaports such as London and Nantucket have high populations of widows.
4. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT. If a complete stranger comes to you before your voyage and starts telling you the story of Jonah and the whale you are fucked. Your best bet would be to run as far inland as your feet can carry you, crawl under a bed, and stay there until the urge to go to sea passes.
I have never liked the ocean. I was born and raised on the desert and love it and have never understood the attraction people have to the ocean. I am doubly confounded now.