Yes, in the old days, – Lightnings holding Northern Q and scarcity of tankers (adherence to the ‘fool’ line), long range Bear Ops were routine. In addition to ‘fleet exercises’ where the presence of any aircraft carrier attracted monitoring attention and occasionally ‘dummy’ attack runs, several Bears would go to Gibraltar to monitor a changeover of the US 6th fleet. Also, there was the 4-yearly 12 ship bear run to the US East coast on 20 Jan (an American will tell you why). You could finish a full mess dinner between these out and back interception sorties.