The battle to save Shell's drill ship continued into Monday in the Fierce weather of the Gulf of Alaska. Shell reports that the drill rig had broke free of its towlines again yesterday. But, Monday morning, the situation has once again stabilized.

Sunday, in winds reaching 50 miles an hour, the tugboat Alert joined the fight to keep the rig from drifting towards shore near the southern islands of the Kodiak Archipeligo. It joined the Aiviq and Nanuq who were on-scene. The Alex Haley made it back to the scene as well late Sunday.

The incident in the Gulf began on Thursday when the Aivik contacted the Coast Guard reporting that the towline between the and the Drill rig Kulluk had parted and the rig was adrift. The were able to reconnect for a while, but then experienced engine failure and became adrift itself. Royal Dutch Shell directed the Nanuq and the Guardsman to the scene as the Coast Guard diverted the Alex Haley from its patrol to take part in the incident.

The Alex Haley managed to get a tow to the Aivik and began a tandem tow, but a short time later, the towline parted and the towline became entangled in the propellor of the Alex Haley. The Alex Haley was called into port to fix the problem. Although the tow parted, the Alex Haley managed to slow the advance of the vessels toward shore and bought valuable time.

With the Alex Haley on its way back to Kodiak for repairs, Air Station Kodiak launched an HC-130 to monitor the scene as the Hickory was launched from Homer and the Spar got underway from Kodiak.

When the Guardsman arrived on-scene, they were able to take the vessels under tow for a short time before the lines broke once again. This time, weather hampered any attempts to tether up to the vessels.

MH-60 Jayhawks made two deliveries of approximately 2,000 pounds of parts to the stricken Aivik on Saturday morning. Within hours, the Aivik was underway again. It is reported that the engine problems that were reported were due to bad fuel.

Efforts by the helicopter crews to evacuate the occupants of the drill rig were unsuccessful on Friday as well early Saturday, but were ultimately successful on their third attempt.

On Sunday, the Aivik and the Nanuq were able to attach to the drill rig once again. A press release was called lauding the success of the operation to get the drill rig back under control. But, during that time, the tow line parted yet again from the two vessels and the Kulluk was once again adrift.

As of Monday morning, the situation has stabilized according to Curtis Smith of Shell Alaska External Affairs. Smith also said that they are looking at attaching yet another towline to the rig which is now undertow and moving to the northeast at about 4 knots.

Currently, the Nanuq, Alert, Guardsman, and Alex Haley are on the scene and the Aiviq as well as the Alert have the kulluk under tow once again. According to Marine traffic, the Aivik pulled up behind the Alert a short while ago doing approximately 3.2 knots with both vessels and the drill rig on a Northeast heading and for a time were moving slightly away from shore.

Smith pointed out that they are currently looking for a safe harbor, although Smith said that they are still unsure of where exactly that will be. But, in the last few minutes, the vessels and their tow has altered their course to run parallel to the Kodiak Island coastline and are now tracking in the general direction of the city of Kodiak. The vessels are currently about 20 miles off-shore of Sitkalidak Island outside of Old Harbor.