I acted as rubber-clad fish food on many an occasion - whether at Mountbatten, Valley, Tenby, Bridlington or wherever it was on the East Anglian coast. Plucked out by Whirlwind, Wessex or Sea King...
Best was invariably when the RAF still ran Mountbatten and the MCU. Worst was either when trying to change out of an immersion suit in the paint locker of some rolling boat off East Anglia - or the St.Mawgan / Fowey / (some RM barracks) adventure. Not the 'laughing at your willy' course, just the regular SCSR course, I hasten to add!
Helicopter support was...variable. Sometimes the weather prevented the Chivenor aircraft crossing the moor, on another occasion a live shout took priority. But they were excellent when they did turn up!
There was a tale doing the rounds that one chap in a SS dinghy got fed up with waiting, so took advantage of wind and tide, hoiked up his sea anchor and made it ashore. Was that fact or fiction?