Before we left Wooli to head north, we knew Bess was not well. It began with her letting us know that she had no stamina. The vet detected blood anomalies, and suspected a bone cancer. She was on steroids to reduce the symptoms, but we knew this was only to give her some quality of life till the end, but that the end was going to be inevitable.

At Airlie Beach, we knew the end was near. The local vet could offer no more treatment. Surrounded by National Park, a long way from home, we had to make a decision about what we would do when the end came. Bess had had a wonderful day at Gloucester Passage last year, and given that there was some freehold land there, we thought that there was a suitable place for a grave, and made for the anchorage at Monties before it was too late.

After burying Bess’ body on the foreshore overlooking the passage, we needed a few days to recover before moving on to Bowen. It seemed that this scruffy old crested tern was channelling Bess’ energy when SeeBeeZee left without Bess on board for the first time ever.