Firstly, good initial post. Sounds like a text book account.
THere is a story of a GA pilot getting caught out in poor weather, called D&D who scrambled a SAR helicopter. The plane was asked to formate on the Seaking which guided the a/c onto the runway - interesting first ILS no doubt, but a happy ending.
IMHO to descend for a cloud break over the sea would be the last option, ie when there was only fuel enough to get down and get to the nearest airfield.