Of course, it was. Should I expect you to say anything else?
If there was no escort, would Iran try to board it? Of course, you would. If there was no escort and you did not even tried, the loss of face and credibility would be enormous. So in the end, there was no 'bluff'. You were driven off. Time to discard what Van Ripper did. I told you guys a long time ago that what the general did was not applicable to Iran. Now it is clear that since (not if) you could not take over an unarmed tanker with a minor escort, no one is going to believe you that you can take on an aircraft carrier.