Thursday Evenining paddling restarts

Kirkwall Kayak Club resumed our Bi weekly summer paddling last Thursday.






A nice easy trip around the famous Churchill Barriers was a pleasant starter. Peter and Neil took a closer look aboard one of the block ships.

The ships were sunk during the First World War to block the channels between the Islands of Scapa Flow to protect the Navel base from German U boats.

This proved to be unsuccessful when in 1939 A German sub found a channel between the ships and hit the HMS Royal Oak with the loss of 833 men and boys. After this Winston Churchill commissioned the building of the barriers.

The barriers provided us with shelter from the cool West wind.