Meanwhile...

Down in the rescue pit, the transportation officials found the damage to Big Bertha is much worse than expected.

From the DOT this week: "the drilling machine's outer seals and the steel retainers that hold them in place are destroyed. There was also damage to the cutter drive motor pinions and the main bearing bull gear."

The drilling machine was set to resume work in August, but now that's not going to happen. The project is already 2 years behind schedule. The machine is stuck near Pioneer Square, just 1,083 feet into the 9,270-foot tunnel route.

Contractors have blamed the stall on a leftover steel pipe that Bertha hit underground, but the extensive damage suggests the machine might not be up to the task.

Everyone wonders if Bertha will survive another mile and a half of drilling?  Or for that matter, can she even get started again? We'll have to throw a few more billion dollars at it to find out.

Other Seattle news. Yesterday morning, the "Paddle in Seattle" protestors took to the streets and blocked entrances to Terminal 5 where the giant oil rig is moored.  Shouting "Shell No" they shut down traffic for a while on the lower West Seattle bridge.

This is about a mile from our house as the crow flies, so the news helicopters were coming and going all day.  And the military flew a giant helicopter over us, I guess "keeping the peace."  

There was an impressive turn-out on Sunday for the kayak protest flotilla.  If there's one thing we have plenty of in Seattle, it's boats. 

That looks like a blast.  But can they make a difference? Well, Shell might regret their decision to bring such a visibly negative environmental symbol to Seattle. These unusual protests are getting some wide press.

The London Evening Standard wrote that Shell is braced for criticism at its annual meeting in The Hague this week for its plans to drill in the Arctic this summer.