Buck is hired by a Vietnam vet to recover his sailboat that his buddy from ‘Nam took on an unauthorized cruise. Buck finds the craft, but it has already been seized by a sinister gang. He gets the boat, but then he is in for a running battle from Hispaniola to Florida.

• The Pickle, a sailboat belonging to a Vietnam vet has gone missing.  The owner hires Buck to find and retrieve the boat.
• Buck finds it in the Dominican Republic; seizes it from thugs that have taken it over, and he and his retrieval crew sail it back to Miami.
• a.The action or fact of holding something (material or immaterial) as one’s own or in one’s control; the state or condition of being so held. to be in (a person’s) possession: to be possessed or owned by (a person). to be in possession of : to possess, hold, or occupy (something). †to take in possession : to take for one’s own or into one’s control; to seize.—Oxford English Dictionary (online)

• As it turns out, the owner’s best buddy from ‘Nam took the boat with Mai, his Vietnamese girlfriend, but the owner doesn’t want his friend prosecuted.  He just wants the  boat back.

• However, other people want the boat, too; and so begins a dicey running battle all the way back to Ft. Lauderdale to the client’s home on a canal.