Guys - thank you for the advice, and offer of assistance - it is all very much appreciated, and as Martin says - one of the benefits of belonging to such a great club, and also making some very good mates in the process.
I have just booked myself in for the VHF course in 3 weeks time - this weekend really bought the need to be competant on the VHF, home to me.
The lifejackets were a massive mistake as I have mentioned before.
Other than that, inexperiance was the reason for heading towards the beach - we didnt know what to expect, - we bloody do now!
As a strange twist of coincidence, I only had one letter delivered this morning as opposed to the usual 10/12 - it was from the RNLI, asking for a