[JRios1968]

That was my first thought. Maybe they are designed to sheer off in a big storm? They look like toothpicks in relation to that beast.

I think they'd run huge steel wires to points already on the seabed, and tighten the bejeez out of them. Same thing they'd do for a suspension or cable-stayed bridge

In fact, same thing they did for the east side of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Very few people know that is just one wire holding up the entire "suspension" span just off Treasure Island.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Those are the tubes that hold the drill strings...

It just dawned on me that this a floating rig that doesn't rest on the bottom -- duh. Lots of design info at New designs advance spar technology into deeper water. Article is 17 years old, however.