The Udaloy class destroyer Severomorsk is well underway to her first major tasking transiting the bay of Biscay and the Portuguese coast very quickly at 24 knots.
Nothing out of the ordinary to report during this transit the odd fishing boat and cargo ship sailed by in the distance weather was calm and clear all the way down however;
0250 on the 29th January we picked up that a Dutch frigate was in the area and subsequently they began to trail us towards the Straight of Gibraltar.
As Severomorsk began to slow down to make the initial transit speed of 12 knots, the Dutch frigate came close by around 2nm behind us, at this point there is not a lot I can do as in front of me is a large container ship, but this was to be a relatively fast transit at 20 knots.
We noticed the Dutch frigate would yo-yo closing then falling back during the transit, I decided I did not want this vessel too close to me so I increased speed steadily and altered course slightly to port increasing from 20 knots to 22knot then 25 knots 27 knots and then 30 knots.
I passed by the container ship on her port side, we noticed the Dutch frigate had sped up as well to 28 knots.
Rather annoyed by this action I passed the container ship and at a safe distance crossed in front from port to starboard coming along side the landward side of the channel. I then made at flank speed for the exit to the straight, I put the crew to action stations and readied a helicopter on deck.
Due to being in the straight we are not allowed to conduct flyops so the plan was to exit the straight and leave the helicopter behind to warn off the Dutch frigate and gather some intelligence.
I passed by a car carrier on my port side we made a safe passing nothing there to report and exited the straight of Gibraltar at 0210 still doing flank speed.
I made a new plan as the Helicopter one wasn’t going to work, knowing where I was going and it wasn’t too much of a huge ask I remained at 30 knots for the duration of my transit of the Moroccan EEZ before entering into the Algerian EEZ.
At 1500 I slowed to 5 knots and entered into Algerian territorial waters with a container ship ahead of me I took onboard a pilot and proceeded into the anchorage.
The task was to anchor in the naval base of Algiers alongside the flagship Kalaat Beni Abbes, here I will refuel and re store the ship before the next phase of the mission.
Stay tuned.