About us

We are Mike and Alison, we have 3 children - Luke, Jodie and Leah (Mike is a star wars fan!)​

We have lived most of our lives in Newport, Alison is a teaching assistant and I work in Cyber Security.

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I (Mike) have always had a dream of seeing the world - and visiting the most impressive places on the planet, I love wildlife, especially that which lives in the sea - and enjoy meeting new people and learning about new cultures. I have believed for many years in the freedom that a set of sails can offer and have dreamed about packing it all in and setting sail. Alison on the other hand is / was not too keen on the idea - and is slightly more apprehensive of the whole idea, I am hoping that over the next few years I can convince her that it indeed is the best thing we would have ever done. 

I first bought a boat back in 2007 it was a Fairline Holiday Motorboat, that started the dream of sailing around the world for me. My next boat was a 27ft Moody called Khaleesi, this boat further cemented the dream and idea, however it was just a bit too small - great to learn on - but almost all aspects of living or even an overnight stay was difficult, and so I upgraded to Dione, a 45ft Jeanneau Sun Odyssey, with the aim of spending the next 6 / 7 years getting her ready to sail away - giving me the opportunity to learn everything I can about her, whilst making any improvements that will help with our safety and comfort at sea, also giving me the knowledge that any money spent would be money spent on the boat that I intend on keeping.

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The aim of this website is to show the journey from a real sailing amateur - through to somebody who is competent and confident at sailing almost single handed (with a little help from Alison) around the world, with some stops in the middle!

I am building this website for myself but also for others to follow our journey and maybe we can help somebody else get going - and maybe even learn from us as we learn from others. 

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Contact me:

dione@mikehatherall.co.uk