We had some real quality time with them and at around 2.00pm Matthew and May turned up with Sofia their daughter. It made a little party of it. It was another lovely day and we all sat in the garden drinking
We travelled in a hire car from Enterprise and headed to Epple Bay in Kent. We first walked along the sea front and had a sandwich and a ice cream, then walked back and watched the F.A. Cup final to finish with a BBQ on the beach...A lovely day... We had clear blue sky all day and had to make sure we had Slip, Slop, Slapped......Slip on the sun glasses, Slop on the sun cream and Slap on a hat... 
We then made our way to Norton Junction, which seemed so different without the snow we had five months ago, we then both moored for lunch.
It was looking in the shallow water for a meal, and it finally got one and left it flapping on the towpath to get another catch. It was not long before he had two fish flapping on the towpath and they weren't small either. It was then scared off by a guy walking his dogs and two crows seized the opportunity to get the smaller one of the fish, but dropped it on take off. The guy with the dogs saw one of the flapping fish and did the right thing by putting it back in the canal. When he had gone the crows returned to pick up the fish they dropped but the fish had made it's way back into the canal. They flew off, and then returned the Heron to find both his catches missing. We managed to get some photos, but they were through two panes of glass so came out a bit blurred.
We then decided to get water at the water point
with Al making more friends,
and that just seemed to take ages, so when we finally got moving we went through Crick tunnel 
and came out the other side to a massive downpour, so we quickly moored up. We didn't feel like moving anymore, so just as the sun came back out we chilled for the rest of the day listening to music.
Quite relaxing after that hectic weekend.
It was lovely to see them all and we then marched off to the show spotting one of those Voles on the way.
The crowds didn't seem that bad early on, but as the day went on it seemed to get busier. 
We managed to get on some boats as the queue's weren't that bad and during the middle of the day checked out all the stands and had lunch, with a beer of course. The queue for the ice cream van was longer than the queue's for the boats and at about 4.00pm they ran out of ice cream and also real ales in the beer tent. 
We all made our way back to Derwent6 as a couple of people wanted to look round. We had drinks and nibbles before heading back to the show for the evening entertainment meeting up with Pat, Keith and Matthew off n.b. Thema. 
Another great day...
We got up early, dusted the boat off of leaves and blossom and then headed down to the show around 11.00am. It was really busy with marquees going up everywhere and people running around. Fernwood turned up at around 12.00 and we had offered to help them put their marquee up and clean the show boat, n.b. Scarpa. 
This took us the best part of the day and we were given wine, feed well and given a wristband to enter the show for all three days. We came back to Derwent6 at around 7.00pm and had decided to go and see the band which were playing that night for mainly all the exhibitors. Well it was a good job we did........It turned out that the band playing was The Climax Blues Band who had lost thier lead singer last year, and they were singing with a new guy who looked very familiar to us. John was the guy who we had met briefly at Kilworth Marina when we had a pumpout and filled with water a few days ago. He was just fantastic on vocals and could also play the Saxophone and Harmonica. Everyone was up dancing and it just was one of those nights you didn't want to end. They said they will be doing Crick next year, so count us in....
There was a lot going on with stands being put up everywhere but it did seem a bit empty with a few spaces about, but it is only Thursday. (Please note the blue sky in the background...lets hope it stays like it)
The pontoons were lined with new boats and everyone was doing the cleaning process to get them ready for the big day. We then got a ice cream and wandered back to Derwent6.
After a full polish, guess what! yes it rained, so we might have to do it all again tomorrow. It has been very quiet here with not many boats moving around...strange! but we did have a horse walking the towpath. 
So not much to report today and it's been restful. We are off now for something to eat at The Red Lion pub in the village, we have eaten there before and the food is very good.
We got to Yelvertoft for water and who should turn up then but Dick and Netty off n.b Peruvian Skies ( http://nbperuvianskies.blogspot.com/ ) another Fernwood boat, they had just had their Tesco's delivery and it was good to see them enjoying themselves and hopefully we'll meet them again at the show.
We topped up the water right to the brim, and then had to get off the water point as everyone had the same idea as us. When we got to Crick the water was really shallow from everyone using Foxton and Watford locks to get here. We then had to keep sticking the bow into the bank until we got in the best we could. We are sticking out and leaning over, but at least we're in. Everyone here is having the same problem. Then we checked if there were any moorings round the corner and there were bollards with a notice saying " ECOLOGICALLY SENSITIVE AREA" , this is apparently because of voles in the area even though we have seen them where we are moored now, so we are the in the best spot we can get. 
BW were doing a good job of dredging this part of the canal as this part was quite shallow in the winter, but now it seems all OK. We got to Husband Bosworth tunnel and met just one boat with no problems. It then bucketed down with rain and we got drowned, thank god for wet weather gear. We then got to North Kilworth marina and had a pumpout and filled with water. It was busy around here and we had difficulty mooring as they had boats going to the Crick Show. The water point was very slow and it took us about a hour and a half to get going again. We needed gas but we couldn't get the bottle over the other boats, so that will have to wait.
We then got to our mooring point at the Welford arm and met up with Pat & Keith on n.b Thema. 
After chatting we were invited back for a meal on board, so it was back to Derwent6 for a quick shower, and then back on Thema for 7.00pm .
The wind was very strong but we got to the basin at about midday. We had a bit of trouble turning and got pushed into the side trying to moor. We ended up mooring on the visitors moorings. 
We then went into town and as we were walking past some parked cars Al spotted someones wallet under a car. It was full of credit cards, a driving licence and some money, so it was a walk back to the Police station to hand it in, but guess what.....it was closed!!!