A huge turnout is expected today to welcome home the Sail Chernobyl round-the-world yacht crewed by the Coveney family.
A Naval Service patrol ship will go alongside the 51ft vessel some 20 miles south of Cork harbour this morning.
The family ketch Golden Apple will end an 18-month voyage when it finally berths at Crosshaven.
Apart from the Naval Service escort, and possibly the Air Corps, the four Coveneys on the Sail Chernobyl project will be greeted by a flotilla organised by the Royal Cork Yacht Club (RCYC) as they set their course for Crosshaven.
Local schools participating in International Low Tide Day today will also be waving a large banner at Roche's Point.
Weather permitting, the welcoming fleet, including 40 Mirror dinghies, is expected to be on the water from 10 a.m. Two hours earlier, the naval patrol ship LE Aisling will make a rendezvous with Golden Apple some 20 miles south of Roche's Point.
On board the Aisling will be two of the three Coveney brothers who remained at home, the vessel's first skipper, Simon, who is now a TD, and his elder brother, Patrick.
Their mother, Mrs Pauline Coveney, will be in a friend's vessel, while the youngest in the family, David, has opted to go it alone, along with some pals, in a 16ft fishing boat.
Golden Apple could have arrived back two days ago. Fresh southerly winds swept the vessel and crew across the Bay of Biscay on the home leg from Bayona in north-west Spain, and so the skipper put in to the Scilly Isles to break the journey.
It was in Bayona, almost a fortnight ago, that the four - skipper Rory (23), twins Tony and Andrew (21) and Rebecca (20) - officially completed their circumnavigation.
Five of the family had set out in late 1997 to raise £1 million for the Cork-based Chernobyl Children's Project.
However, they had to leave the boat in the Galapagos and fly home unexpectedly in March of last year when their father, the Cork South Central TD, Hugh Coveney, died in a cliff accident. Four of the five then returned to complete the journey.
It will be an emotional occasion for the siblings on this account. "A mixture of relief, pride and great happiness, but also great sadness," Mr Simon Coveney TD predicted this week. "My mother has been desperately looking forward to their return."
Mrs Coveney, who is studying for her second-year arts degree exams at University College Cork, has crewed on two legs of the voyage; her most recent stint being a 10-day berth, often in rough weather, from Suez to Malta.
"I am very glad I did it, because it gave me time to see how they coped in difficult conditions," she told The Irish Times.
"Still, I will be relieved to see them back - the last fortnight has really dragged - because there is always the fear of the unexpected at sea."
The family has given a new lease of life to the Chernobyl Children's Project, both by raising £400,000 and by raising awareness about the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.
Their fund-raising efforts were boosted by a Government donation of £100,000, to honour the late Hugh Coveney, and by various school and student projects at home.
The crew's work is not quite over yet. A fund-raising dinner is to be held tomorrow night in Carrigaline, and a slide and video presentation for schools will be held on Monday at Crosshaven Yacht Club.
The Sail Chernobyl account is at Allied Irish Banks, South Mall, Cork, number 11100050. All the money donated will go straight to the charity, as the Coveneys have paid all their own costs during the circumnavigation.
