Ok just watched this morning's footage in fast forward. Shortly after my last summary post they brought back the craw, clamped it on to the end of the riser where it had made it's cut earlier, and moved the riser around a little bit. Wire blade is definitely bound up. After jiggling the riser for a bit, they lowered another strap from the surface, and the ROV used it's manipulator to tie it around the end of the riser. Then they resumed advancing and retracting the pulleys on the DWS, which they were trying for several hours after cutting had stopped last night. After awhile it appears as though the blade was freed, DWS was removed from the riser, and it is now being toted back to the surface.
Here is a shot that shows how far they got with the DWS before it bound up:
And we can see how far that is by using this pic taken almost 90* to the DWS and taking note of the 3 distinct black lines on the riser:
Cut line is directly under the second (left) of the two side by side parallel lines. The third (lower, single) black line would be just over half way, so my guess is that they are at roughly 35 - 40 % of the way through.
Here is how the DWS was positioned originally:
And again right after it was finally freed up:
Getting word now from inside the ropes that they are just changing the blade and cleaning the machine... the amount of gas hydrates that were forming on the pulleys was substantial, and the saw was certainly getting blasted heavily by the plume. They are going to lower it back down later today, and orient the saw on a different rotational plane next time. This will hopefully open up the cut in the riser a little bit and make it so the inner drill string can be cut.
And that's where we're at up until right now. On a side note, those DWS blades are ~10k a pop. Perhaps Tony Hayward will recycle the first one by giving it to his wife to use as a necklace? lol.