Update: on the 13th of May 2011 Jack left us. Here is the email I sent to Liz to tell her the news, we were at the time hauled out on the hard and doing anti-fouling:

"Jack had a bad day today. He was in pain this morning, and could not walk at all, I carried him to make a weewee, he just stood there after finishing. Every time I picked him up, he yelped. We took him to the vet to see what he could do. He gave us all sorts of things, tablets and an injection to ease the pain.

We brought him home and had lunch with him. He watched our every move. He was panting as if under stress, and when we tried to move him he yelped again and again. We made him comfortable, and continued our work, but he was moaning, talking, saying owww.

Mom came upstairs from the yard, and we decided it was enough. We both loved him and gave him lots of viennas. He loved that. Then I picked him up and carried him to the car, and we went back to the vet. This time Gabriel was there. Jack and him get on really well. Gabriel took one look and shook his head. He felt around and said that the cancer had affected his liver, pancreas, and the whole shoulder joint, his right lung was also deflated. We asked Gabriel to prepare the sleeping syringe, and while mom and I held his head between ours, whispering comfort in his ears, he fell asleep.

We wrapped him and brought him home, still not able to stop stroking his ears and head. We wrapped him in his black bedding, and sewed it shut with whipping twine. We put two 11 kg anodes in with him. We then took him for a lovely fast dinghy ride towards the setting sun, with him in the front, just like he wants to be. We hugged him, and let him go for his last swim in deep deep pure blue water, a bunch of daisies followed him down.

Its hard for us Liz, very hard, but it was the right thing to do. He did not deserve the pain that was only starting to come."

And so this wonderful friendship came to an end. We will miss him.