Thanks for the welcome all, at the moment my next planned trip isn't until the start of November, so I'll have to try and get a couple booked in the interim to prevent the onset of cabin fever!
The nearest coastline to me is the Solent area which is still 2 hours on a good run..... thinking about trying to book on a charter out of the Portsmouth area as that's the easiest to get to.
I agree that Les is a great Skipper.... the last time I was out with him was in May and we had a fantastic day on the Bream, must have had 15+ on the day!