I wonder if there is a difference?
Last night , at around midnight, about 2 miles off the west coast of corsica, in fog, a ship identified itself as the french coastguard and asked us to stop our ship.
The skipper declined, suggesting that it was unsafe to do so in thick fog at night and also we could not see that they were infact customs officers. There was also a reported case a year ago of pirates raiding a moored vessel in corsica so i can understand. They threatened to shoot at us and declared they would take over our vessel if we failed to stop.
When we cleared the fog bank, they finally did come alongside and they were legitimate customs officers but here’s the scary thing. They boarded our boat, two of them , with side arms , reeked of alcohol, arrogant and agressive!
After 2 hours of them on board, they cleared off again
bloody garlic munchers !!
The November Archives 
Have a moan - the beers are on me !!