Q&A with Stephanie Hackett-Wife of Rich Hackett
Interviewed by: Carly Smith
What was your initial reaction to Rich wanting to start Sea Mercy?
S: Well we love to sail. We’ve been sailing since we started dating and so my first reaction was sort of that romantic, oh wow we could go sailing and potentially live in all these exotic places. The second part of it was how much is this going to cost for you to make a nonprofit because the money has to come from somewhere? So the second feeling was the very real part.
What were some of your biggest fears about the project in general?
S: I think part of it is you don’t really know if there is a need and maybe we are trying to do something that people don’t really want. It’s going to be a lot of my husband’s time, when he could be spending that time with the company that provides us with a living. So I would prefer for him to be making money over here than doing something that doesn’t make any money, but instead takes money. That was my biggest fear, is how was this going to affect us survival wise?
Was there a specific experience that you remember from being in Tonga, Fiji?
S: Well I remember something went wrong with our boat and we needed an insurance adjuster to come down to the docks and help us with it but the day we were suppose to meet, he never showed up. Rich and I were very frustrated and then that night Rich bought a bottle of wine from a small store and the owner of the store came up to help us with the wine selection and we ended up telling her the issues with the boat and our insurance adjuster. So she picks up the phone and calls that same insurance adjuster and said, “Hey, you’ve got to get down there. They’re waiting for you!” so he came to the dock at nine the next morning. That’s how they do business over there. It’s not like the United States where there are a bunch of processes. It’s all about relationships; you have to have people that you know.