Welcome to our
Journey
In June, 2019 we sold our house and all of our belongings, hugged our 3 kids good-bye and told our dog we would “see him later”. We moved aboard our Catalina 445 sailboat and cast off for our adventure of a lifetime. This is our journey . . .
Honey Johnson
Retired small business owner of a Real Estate Staging company in Raleigh, NC.
Living on a sailboat is 8000% NOT Honey! This stat was lovingly provided by her oldest child, Mary Frances, who was making a prediction of how this adventure would go. Since this dire prediction was uttered, Honey has been working hard to bring down that number. Currently, she is in the 1000% range :) Things like sea sickness, creatures in the water and a love of air conditioning make living on a boat full-time seem crazy for Honey. Nevertheless, off she went because her favorite thing is Quality Time with her husband and what better way to get that than to sail off together into the sunset.
Honey’s other love is real estate staging. She loves all things about houses, gardens and design. Helping agents and sellers transform their properties to sell was her passion. She was blessed to use her God given talent in a way that made going to work each day a joy. When she moved onto SoundWave she took zero plants, zero lamps, zero furniture, but she did take a dozen throw pillows! The art of staging does come in to great use on a boat as it helps to keep the place looking neat and spacious at all times. There will be no clutter here!
Her greatest earthly treasure is her three children who are in college in NC and her dog, Bishop.
Chip Johnson
Retired High-End Audio Specialist.
Living on a sailboat is 8000% Chip. He loves everything about it. He grew up in Belhaven, NC two houses from the Pungo River where he swam all day across the one mile wide water. As a kid he was enamored by the moored boats and would swim out to say hello and hold on to their anchor chain to inquire about their travels. He had a boat before he had a car and "ran crab pots" for pocket money. Moving to Chapel Hill for college took him away from the water and kept him in the Triangle area until he retired. He spent those years bartending, playing bass in a college band called The Modern Pilgrims and ended up selling high end audio. Golfing was his main hobby. He pretty much gave that up when the kids asked for a boat. Chip investigated a purchase of one and found a MacGregor 25 with a swing keel and a trailer and off the family went to the lakes surrounding Raleigh. Scheduling things and getting stuff done is one of Chip’s strong suits. Chip scheduled time on the MacGregor 25 and the family grew to love it. They even took a week vacation on it to New Bern, Oriental and Belhaven. The family of 5 living on the boat that week looked like a yard sale on steroids, but they did it. Then they decided they needed a bigger boat. Chip bought and sold a lot of boats until we found SoundWave. Chip entertains himself as a liveaboard through many hobbies: exercise, Krav Maga, playing guitar and drone piloting just to name a few.
How We Started Sailing
We've had a few boats!
When we realized that we needed to make more family memories with our teenagers we started sailing. It happened innocently. Charlie, our son, asked if we could buy a small Sunfish sailboat since he enjoyed them so much at Camp Don Lee. Chip started hunting and in 2014 came up with our first boat . . . the MacGregor 25. It was a trailer sailor with a retractable keel. We took it to lakes and to the inner banks. The rest is history . . . .
2014
1st boat MacGregor 25 trailer sailor
We spent days on Jordan Lake on this tiny boat.
2014
2nd boat MacGregor 26 trailer sailor
We had "2 foot-itus" and got a boat 1' larger than the last one :)
2014
3rd boat
Morgan 38
Chip bought this for a "song".
So. Many. Projects. For that reason, I'm out! (Honey said in her best Mark Cuban voice)
2015
4th boat
Fatty Knees 9 Dinghy
A perfect hard rowing dinghy. It was small and we had to make 2 trips to get everyone ashore.
2018
5th boat
S2-9.2A 30 Sailboat
Our first big boat that sailed like a champ. We bought it in Newport News, Va and brought it to Arapahoe, NC.
2016
6th boat Freebooter Fishing Row Boat 14'
A 2-person row boat that we kept in our garage in Raleigh so we could train for our liveaboard life when we were not in Oriental. We named it Half-Rest.
2016
7th boat
Catalina 400 Sailboat
The boat that really birthed our dream to retire and coastal cruise. We bought her from a Russian in Miami. She was totaled in Hurricane Florence.
2016
8th boat
Compac 16
Bought for the 3 kids for Christmas. They were probably too young then and thus didn't use it much.
2016
9th boat
Trinka 12 Sailboat
Bought because it is adorable! Then we gave it away :)
2018
10th boat
Catalina 445 Sailboat
2012 model from the Miami Boat Show. This is our current home.
2018
11th boat
Gig Harbor Point Defiance Sailing Dinghy 12'
Chip's favorite boat of all time! It is made of Kevlar and holds all 5 of us for a trip to shore.
2020
12th boat
Hurricane V151 Sportster 15'
Chip got this boat for Honey's birthday so she would have something easier to drive than the dinghy. Plus, its a great fishing boat!
Our song . . . .
Dave Matthews Band's You & Me
Chip's cousin, Lewis Sadler, told him to check out this song as it reminds him of our dream. We fell in love with it instantly. Chip plays it for me on the guitar often. Thanks, Lewis!