The afternoon job was cleaning all the rubbish off the prop, and in the evening we all popped over the Navigation for another cheap meal!!!
We then passed the National Space Centre and Leicester City Football ground which looked very impressive and was another nice section. 
We continued along onto the River Soar and then passing a weir and going back onto the Leicester line of the Grand Union. We passed some lovely back gardens.
The whole canal seemed very river like and with the wind now very blustery it was a bit tricky in places. At one point we moored up for a lock and were pushed against the high alcoving (more paintwork) by a big weir and the wind behind it. We had to wait for another boat to be able to slide us round into the lock as we couldn't push off. 
Well, we reversed back from the lock and angled the bow in, as we just slid sideways into the concrete wall, but we got in........ The fenders are only just doing their job on here, and we are being tossed around like a tin can in a bath.
We can't even close the side doors because the concrete is so high. 
The plan was to clean and tidy and do some of that touching up in the morning, watch the Grand Prix and then set off in the afternoon. There was quite a lot of activity on the canals today, being the weekend and all that, so we watched everyone tooing and froing. There are quite a lot of wide beams in this area and you defiantly know it when they go by.
It was nice not moving. When we got back we just sat on the bow and relaxed. Oh, and by the way.....we never got that rain!
You could see the current flow from right to left and we stuck the bow out and watched it pull us round luckily in the direction we wanted to go. Once we were in the flow we could back off the revs and let the current do the work.
What was strange was that Derwent6 felt lower in the water, it felt like the gas locker was taking on water. This was because the bow wasn't pointing into anything green like the banks or hillside, but just a massive expanse of water.
We then travelled past Sawley Marina and then onto the first lock, which started to open as we approached as it was electrically operated. It seemed strange that we were both on board when going through a lock. The lock keeper came out to us and checked our licence and gave us some good information on the River Soar and Leicester section of the Grand Union. 
We then made our way onto the River Soar and it was then we noticed how high the piling was when we had to do our next lock. It was difficult trying to hold Derwent6 away from the high concrete sides which were there to help when it floods. We caught the side a couple of times so more touching up required. The river was just fantastic and very scenic, we both loved it.
It seemed weird going round the shops as we hadn't done it for a long time. 
We had hit the town market right as well, as it was the end of the day and they were selling everything off at brilliant prices. After going round Sainsburys we headed back to Derwent6, and as it was Saturday night, and we were surrounded by bars and clubs, we decided to move on. We found a spot in the middle of nowhere and settled down for the night. What a great experience!!!
We spotted Shardlow marina and it also had a club house so thought we might as well check this out. We asked at the the bar and sure enough they had a singer on tonight, so as it is a short walk from Derwent6 that could be our best bet.
Our original plan was to travel down to Cavendish Bridge with Derwent6 and Blimey! we were glad we didn't take it down the River Trent to The Crown Inn pub. Not only was it flowing very fast, but there was no where to moor up, it just pays to have a little look around first.
We then walked past the church and into the village, it's a two mile walk to get to the post office, which is also a small stores. It seemed like a small shack in the middle of nowhere but it had everything we wanted. We checked out another two pubs and no entertainment so the marina it will have to be.
We left Findern and was soon upon the first of the double locks. These can be difficult, with heavy gates and sticky paddles, so no wonder all the hire boaters had glum faces......it's their baptism of fire! Talking of fire the best part of the day for Al was the local fire brigade conducting a canal rescue drill. They were looking at the risk of someone falling in at a lock so Al proved to be an expert in the subject!!!!!!
We carried on along this pretty canal, passing Swarkestone and Weston-on-Trent, before mooring up for a spot of lunch. This was just over the hill from Donnington Park raceway, so would be a good mooring on race day. 
