I was going through the usual feelings of apprehension standing above the Red Sea, just off the coast of Aqaba in south Jordan. I"d already got over my fear of diving a couple of years previously – following a bad try-dive experience as a backpacker a decade earlier – and was now undertaking an advance PADI (Professional Association of Dive Instructors) course. But still, with an inner voice telling me I shouldn"t jump, I found it difficult to take the plunge.