My name is Rudy Garcia, we (party of five) booked on the Grande July 18th and experienced the worst crew performance ever in the 30+ years of Southern California fishing. From the beginning of our trip, we experienced negative attitude from all but the Captain. One of our group who is a recent 23 year Army special forces retiree, asked where his gear was moved too. The deckhand responded somewhere on the boat. This recent military retiree asked who moved his stuff so that he can ask that deckhand where as he is just recuperating from a life treating illness of MERSA that he experienced from his time in Iraq defending this deckhand right to be obnoxious and down right disrespectful. This deckhand stated that is somewhere on the 85' boat, "Go look for it". I understand the deck crew was annoyed by this recent retiree remarks throughout the day, which were many and loud. However, we as paying customers, should never, ever have to experienced what we did. In fact at the end of the day, one deckhand started yelling obscenities at us to get our _ucking _hit off the boat. When my 74 year old uncle stated that we were getting off the boat, we were that last of the Anglers to leave the boat, the entire crew, with the exception of the Captain, started yelling inches away from my uncles face to get his _ucking _hit and get off his _ucking boat, his son , the recent military hero, staring yelling at the crew to get the _uck away from his dad. At this point the situation escalated into a pushing and shouting and near a physical altercation of which I'm pretty sure the crew would have taken the worst of it as my 74 year old uncle is also a special forces retiree and I'm and ex-pro fighter. So with the grace of god, no one was physically hurt. However, this situation needs to be addressed and we need to be assured the entire crew is sufficiently reprimanded for their total lack of control, disrespect and verbal abuse of paying customers. In fact if I was one of the two owners, James McDaniel or Stever Peterson, I would have fired the entire crew, including the spineless Captain, who could not control his own crew. As a paying customer, I want some form of compensation for the total absent of professional behavior on behalf of the Grande. However, the only response was from the staff at H&M, which stetted that we should consider a private charter. No response from the Owners of the Grande.
At this point, I'm asking all current and former Veterans and their family and friends to boycott the Grande for the remaining of the year. The Grande does not deserve one dollar from any one, especial those that served our country. In fact, the Grande should send a letter of apology and assure the paying customers that this crew has in fact been replaced.
Asking that this letter be posted in the San Diego Tribune and any other publications regarding fishing and Vets
Sincerely
Rudy Garcia read more