Please... Help in understanding how the coordinates work i.e. numbers.. minutes etc.

These 3 links will help, basically Equator is zero, North from equator is North lattitudes, South of Equator is South Lattitudes. From Greenwich England(Zero Longitude) from there the longitudes go from East to 180, and West Longitudes to 180.
Then they will be broke down to Degrees.Minutes.Seconds, or thousandsths of a Minute or better.

These may help. Also, If the North Star is 25 Degrees up off the Horizon, you are at 25 degrees Latitude, Longitude gets involved and you will need a watch, or sextant.
If you watch Orion, It will move across the sky from east to west and is over the equator(celestial belt)this would be 25 degrees from directly overhead(zenith)when passing due south. This would confirm your location somewhere on 25 degree latitude.



Sam Wormley's GPS Tutorials (http://www.edu-observatory.org/gps/tutorials.html)

Captain's Blog SCUBA Blog - Dive Spots (http://www.divespots.com/scuba/m-3/y-2006/blog-captainslog/viewBlog.blogs)

Latitude and Longitude - Learn Latitude and Longitude (http://geography.about.com/cs/latitudelongitude/a/latlong.htm?p=1)

Merry Christmas, Take Care