I woke to my alarm at 7.30am and tiptoed around our beach hut getting together what I needed for my day scuba diving. I had let myself off my morning exercise regime since I had an 8.30 start anyway for the day's course, and I figured I'd be exercising underwater. I roused Scott just as I was leaving,wanting to give him a goodbye kiss in case I met my end like Steve Irwin harpooned by a sting ray, or worse got the bends! I will admit to a certain amount of apprehension. As much as I love the water, I thought there is something a bit warped about going down deep and breathing underwater. It was also a bit strange to be spending the day without Scott - we've spent so long in constant close company it feels like I'm missing an arm or leg when he's not around; and any excitement or enjoyment is just a tad less thrilling when he's not there to share in the amazement.

When I reached the dive shop I met my instructor, Will, a Canadian chap, and felt lucky to learn that it would just be me and another French chap doing the course so we would have a nice small group. I figured that if anything catastrophic was to happen our chances of survival would surely be higher if Will only had to keep 2 of us alive! We had to start the day by signing something that basically said the company and instructor would be liable for sod all in the event of an accident. It didn't do much to help my nerves when the small print read ' Coral Grand Resort and the dive instructor will not be liable in the event of death due to faulty equipment!' Just great!

After a 30 minute theory lesson and a quick true/false quiz to check that we'd remembered all the essentials (like you must never hold your breath scuba diving because as you go up the compressed air you've been breathing expands in your lungs and kills you!) we headed to the swimming pool to learn about the equipment and some basic skills. We got decked out in wet suit, weight belt and a heavy backpack like contraption which had your life jacket, compressed air tank and breathing regulator/mouth piece, and reassuringly a spare breathing regulator. It also had a clever gadget that had 2 buttons to press to either add or remove air from the life jacket, an essential to allow us to float along happily at the right depth in the water.

It was all going great and I felt fine right up until we stood in the pool and Will said 'Just put the mouthpiece in and dip your head into the water'. Sounds easy enough - there really should be no reason to panic as after all I could just lift my head and breathe normally again. In theory this is of course the case, but my brain could not get round the idea of actually filling my lungs whilst my nose and mouth are submerged. I was breathing but felt convinced I wasn't getting a proper breath, and after 3 breaths underwater I just had to come up. Will, ever patient with me, said not to worry - it's like that for everyone the first time. I'm sure this was just to make me feel better, but nonetheless I was incredibly grateful for his reassurance. He said just tell your brain to behave and that I know what you want - oxygen- and I've got that right here - everything will be fine. Amazingly this little brain telling off worked and I was well away learning how to take my mouth piece out underwater and how to clear my mask if it filled with water. By then we were ready to go to the deep end of the pool and learn how to make our ears pop to equalise the pressure on either side of our ear drums - (something we would need to master if going anything more than a couple of metres deep) and also to practice how to use our breathing to control whether we sank or went upwards towards the surface. Amazingly you can just take a deep breath in and you go up, and a deep breath out and you sink. Genius I thought, but it wasn't until we were out in open ocean that I mastered this skill. In the swimming pool I kept fluctuating between hitting the bottom and almost surfacing.

After our swimming pool lesson we had an hours lunch break before meeting the boat to take us out to our first dive site. Ever pleased with myself at having mastered the basics in the pool, I ran back to the hut to find Scott and tell him all about my morning. I enjoyed a nice and light chef's salad for lunch, not wanting to weigh myself down. We ate at the dive resort and my instructor joined us. Scott said jokingly 'Look after her won't you'. It dawned on me how much trust and reliance I was putting on this Will bloke - a complete stranger but someone I felt reassured in the presence of at least. He seemed to know his stuff.

I forgot to mention today was the first day since arriving on the islands that we had woken to blue sky and glorious sunshine. I had felt smug as thought the sunshine would improve visibility diving. I later learned that it is much more to do with the wind and whether there has been rain and wind in recent days. At 12.15 when we started heading out to sea it clouded over and started to rain. I thought how typical, but luckily it was short lived and by the time we reached our first dive site called Twin Rocks near the Naan-Yuan island off the northwest coast of Ko Tao, the sun was back out. Will gave us a bit of a talk about the sea life we might encounter and had a helpful picture book with all the fish in. He kept giving us different hand signals to correspond with different fish so that we could understand underwater. I didn't have the heart to tell him I could barely remember the fish names, let alone the hand signals. We put on our kit and then it was time. After not so elegantly staggering into my suit and leaping off the end of the boat we got in line to descend down the dive rope which went down to 8m, and then we would free swim down to our maximum depth of 12m. We descended slowly popping our ears as we went, and Will kindly stopped every metre or so and turned round to check I was ok. Any fear I had left rapidly dissipated as we became submersed in the glorious underwater kingdom. It was liberating not to have to think about getting oxygen all the time, which is what happens if you dive deep while snorkelling. Instead I could focus on the wonders around me. We were surrounded by shoals of fish of all shapes,colours and sizes. I'm afraid most of the names escape me but they looked beautiful enough. We were lucky enough to see a moray eel swimming. It was so elegant and flowed flat like a ribbon, not like a snake as I had expected. We also saw 2 sting rays hiding under a rock. It was difficult not being able to speak and exclaim at all the things around us, but luckily Will had a little writing board with him which allowed some limited communication. We spent 40 minutes under the water before surfacing for some fresh fruit and water back on ship and then it was onto the next dive site. The second site was not as good in terms of visibility or variety of fish, but we did see a huge pufferfish hiding under a rock. It was quite shy and swam off before we could get closer look.

By 4.30pm we were back at Sairee beach and I was awarded a certificate for my achievements! I had enjoyed the experience much more than I expected. It was mainly inquisitiveness that made me do it, but I'd gladly do it again for the pleasure of being allowed into such a different and magical underwater world.

My dive class were stopping for a beer to watch the sunset, but I wanted to get back and invite Scott to join us as I thought he might be waiting for me. I needn't have worried as I found him lying happily beneath a tree with two Thai ladies massaging him! He seemed to be in his own magical world as well! Back at the dive shop I enjoyed a cocktail watching a magnificent sunset, and later Scott and I met another British couple, Andy and Jodie, for dinner. He had been speaking to them during the day, having recognised them from having been at Bottle Beach with us on Ko Pha-Ngan. It was good to have some company for the evening and I was still on a high from the excitement of scuba diving.