Looking for a strategy

[Sean McCrory]

So here is the rub my fellow BP'ers.

I work in the oil and gas industry. More specifically I work offshore on rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. I will typically spend about 8 months of the year offshore. That is 7 days a week and 12 hours a day if not more sometimes. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that when I get home I am also working a minimum of 40 hours in the shop getting the next project ready to ship offshore..... That is 8 months of time away from home. Away from my own bed. And as of this year away from my wife. I am not ready for it to be 8 months away from my family once we have a kid. Also included in these 8 months are birthdays and holidays and other special events that I miss on a regular basis. For instance... this year I missed Thanksgiving and will be on this rig through Christmas and New Years. Not trying to drum up pity by any means, I chose this life my wife is ok with it and I make a pretty good living by doing it. The reason I bring this up is to show my motivation to get out of this and into something that will keep me home.

I am currently one class away from being able to take my state exam and will have that completed before I make it back to land. More than likely it will be done by tomorrow night.

My job really limits me on what I can do since the internet connections are usually slow and lagging and phone time is limited out of courtesy of everyone else out here wanting to call there families. 

The old adage of "Hurry up and wait" to describe the oil field also describes my job pretty well. I am out here for a "just in case" scenario until they need me and current projections have me not being needed until after New Years. That leaves me with 12 hours a day for the next 16 days of trying to find a way to make the hours go by faster. I have a ton of movies, I read articles and blogs and books like crazy. I even took some forms from these articles and such and retrofit them into something I think I could use....which is half crazy since I am not even currently marketing for a deal so I have no need for forms yet. 

My question is - Is there something that I could be doing that is 100% online that involves real estate investing? I have a ton of free time while out here but I am not sure how to go about maximizing it and getting it moving into real estate investing. 

I am not picky about the task. I just want a constructive way to pass the time and lord willing maybe make a little bit of extra money off of it or at least gain some exposure to the investing world. 

Any advice is greatly appreciated and thank you for taking the time to read this.