Lee,
I guess I'm one of the lucky ones when it comes to time. I managed to get all of my training done and have my pilot certificate issued at 20 hours.
I found that, like you, being at the coast I was doing a lot of flying with the instructor in reasonably heavy winds and I think it helped me learn to FLY the plane better so that when it came to solo, it didn't matter what the conditions were like. Luckily, my first solo was on a calm day.....for the first 3 landings, after that it started getting a little windy. In the 16 months since then, I think I've had 2 or 3 calm(ish) days.
I do agree with the others, if you want to fly in calm/light winds, get in some early morning lessons, trust me, it's worth it when you see how great your first solo is.
Bob