The Golden Apple is still ploughing through the oceans with the Coveney clan on board. The family members, who are on a round-the-world voyage to aid the Chernobyl Children's Project in Cork, are having the trip of a lifetime. Sailors all from an early age, they are seeing the world and doing what they love best.When I telephoned the Minane Bridge homestead recently to ask how the intrepid seafarers were doing, their parents, former Fine Gael minister, Hugh Coveney, and his wife, Pauline, had just received an email message from the troops to say that all was well.They had arrived in Puerto la Cruz in Venezuela and were planning some siesta time and a canoe trip up the great Orinoco river, followed by a guided tour of some of the most impenetrable rain forest in the world. Just to reassure their parents, they added that encounters with fanged, slithery creatures were anticipated.Last December the Coveneys flew out to St Lucia in the West Indies to join their sons: Simon (25); Rory (23); twins Andrew and Tony (21); and daughter Rebecca (19) for a Christmas holiday.They enjoyed a fortnight's sailing together before the Golden Apple faced the open seas again. Within 14 days the voyagers will be at the entrance to the Panama Canal, which will set them up for their first port of call in the Pacific, the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin developed some of his controversial theories.Are they well? "They probably wouldn't tell us anyway, but as far as I know, they are," their father said. The eldest Coveney son, Patrick (27) who works in London, could find himself on business in Australia next summer when the Golden Apple makes landfall there, and Hugh and Pauline might join the family for a short holiday.In the meantime, the on-board computer is keeping them in touch. They expect to be in Cork again by June 1999.