Sailors aboard 78 yachts were due to leave Las Palmas for the Cape Verde islands on Sunday 8 November, but two low pressure weather systems close to the Canary Islands are set to cause storms and atypical conditions on the planned departure date.

It is forecast that the sailors would experience strong south westerly winds when leaving Las Palmas, rather than the more typical northerly breezes.

‘I feel like a lump of concrete has been lifted from my chest,’ said Amy Kemp, aboard Farr 56 Zina, on hearing about the decision to delay the start.

‘The forecast is for storms, 50-knot gusts, enormous waves and just general grimness. There is no way we’d contemplate sailing in those sorts of conditions, even without the kids.’

The new planned start date for the Atlantic Rally is Wednesday 11 November, although the World Cruising Club will continue to monitor the forecast closely.

‘A large 1037mb area of high pressure north of the UK continues to block the jet stream and is causing low pressure systems to back up in the Atlantic and push farther southeast than is usual,’ said WCC meteorologist, Eric Holden.

‘1001mb low pressure is deepening over the Azores, where one typically expects high pressure at this time of year, and it will slowly drift to the southeast under the high over the coming days (T+24-96).

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‘This low will bring increasing southwest winds towards the Canaries on Saturday ahead of an approaching cold front expected to pass over the Canaries on Sunday, with gale force winds possible.

‘This second and smaller low will track northeast across the Atlantic and may impact the Canaries with gales towards the middle of next week. The timing and strength of this low has a high level of uncertainty.’

World Cruising Club Managing Director, Paul Tetlow said: “The decision to delay the start of ARC+ is not something we have taken lightly, but ultimately the primary concern of the World Cruising Club is the safety of our participants.

“During the last week, we have been monitoring the weather forecast very closely, together with our experienced meteorologist, Eric Holden. Based on the weather systems which are currently tracking across the north Atlantic, we feel to delay the start is the best decision we could make given the challenging circumstances.’

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