optio s40 autofocus

I got this camera at xmas, to have as a "take everywhere" camera, cus its nice and small. Im having real trouble trying to get photos of landscapes. Just moved into a new house and want to take local scenery shots of the beach and sea. Ive tried using the landscape setting and the mountain focus setting but it always comes out grainy and slightly out of focus. Is there something I'm missing or is this a common problem?
here is an example
please show me any good photos of landscapes from this camera. thank you

I get the impression you don't do anything to the image once you have downloaded it.

The light in this picture is rather dull, but some quick adjustments to contrast, gamma, saturation, and sharpening make it look very much better.

If you don't have a program that enables you to do this, download Irfanview (and the plugins). Its free at http://www.irfanview.com

Then load the program, open the picture and go into the "Image" menu and then the "enhance colours" menu. Using the sliders, take the gamma to 1.2, the contrast to 20, and the saturation to 70. Click OK, then sharpen. Save the result, and you'll be pleasantly surprised.