Andy does it - 2 days, 20 meters, 1 breath

Off to class again this morning and we learn more breathing exercises and adapt what we learnt yesterday. Each time you dive, you prepare on the surface using your snorkel doing breathing cycles before surfacing for your final two cycles then taking a final big breath which you hold then you dive. We add some yogic pranayama exercises to these which we can practice on land to help and also go through some dangers and rescue techniques.

We head off again for our second breakfast while the first group go out. Andy's ears are bothering him a bit today but Shane seems to think he'll be ok. Fred is calmer today and Andy more nervous ... the opposite of yesterday.

The other group look better then yesterday but not overjoyed ... It's harder than everyone thought. Our turn. We head much further out this time and the water is beautifully clear so you can see the 20m marker easily from the surface. Andy goes first and does really well - we're doing the feet first method so we can equalise more easily and his ears are ok. Fred is doing better than yesterday and can stay down longer but isn't getting so deep - her right ear is one problem but also it's pretty hard trying to bypass the instinct to come up to breath.

After a couple of goes Shane tells Andy he's getting close so just to do a few more pulls next time. He does his preps, takes a big breath and he's off ... a small pause near the bottom but he continues down and he's done it. He surfaces calmly, does his recovery breaths then it's high fives all round .... what an achievement. He certainly didn't think he'd make it all the way this morning.

We do a few more each, Andy hitting the marker again and Fred not even getting close but enjoying it more today and making progress which is the main thing. There's a guy with another instructor close by who did his beginners course last week, a static apnoea one day in the pool, his three day advanced straight afterwards and he's now diving to 35m today - impressive stuff.

We head back pleased with ourselves and Andy particularly chuffed. We head out for sunset cocktails to celebrate before a lovely fresh fish dinner. It's been a tough and interesting couple of days. We're both glad we did it and would both like to try it again :-)