To British Honduras

In January of 1954, Bucher and Chuck signed in on the first page of the register of the recently completed Fort George Hotel in Belize City, the first modern hotel in the colony.

Next day they took passage to Caye (pronounced key) Caulker on a stout local sailboat. They sailed northward inside the reef, sans motor, on a moonlit night, enjoying the view of endless small islands while one of the other passengers sang in Spanish, accompanying himself on a guitar.

On Caye Caulker Chuck learned with dismay that the 28-foot sailboat, for which he had paid in full, was instead an unfinished 18-foot sailboat. Bucher, who had been building boats since he was a boy, bullied the shipyard owner (son-in-law of the then president of Guatemala) into letting him supervise completion of Chuck’s boat. In two weeks it was ready to sail, not fully finished, but seaworthy.

Chuck and Bucher set sail up the northern coast of British Honduras. Off Mexico, they were hit by a heavy Norther, a wind-and-rain storm that had them sheltering in Bahía de la Ascención for three days. Bucher told me they lived off coconuts, but I never believed him.

They finally were able to continue their trip, sailing into harbor at the Isla de Cozumel on a stormy night. Chuck’s vacation time had run out so he left the sailboat to be sent on to Florida by freighter. He and Bucher flew to Mérida, capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán, the closest place to get a plane back to Florida.