The more I think about the aborted raid on Scarborough in April 1653, the stranger it seems

I have previously written about Witte de With's expedition to Scarborough, undertaken with the intent of conducting a raid in April 1653. Not following through with the raid seems very uncharacteristic of Witte de With. He had a substantial squadron of ships (something like 17 warships), so he might have done some damage. He let Cornelis de Groot and others talk him out of the raid in a council of war. I have not seen real reason for what the raid would not have been successful. Witte de With seems to have felt like he needed the endorsement of a council of war, prior to making any attempt at attacking. He had come back to active duty after being out of action from early December 1652. He may have actually been on board the Amsterdam jacht Luipaard during the raid. The Luipaard only had 6pdrs as its largest weapon.