The Volvo Ocean Race has postponed the start of fifth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race from Auckland, New Zealand, due to the dangerous waves and swells brought by Cyclone Pam. Race organizers said they reached the decision because of concerns about the sea state that the teams would inevitably encounter within days of leaving the port.

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Leg five is now scheduled to start on Wednesday at 9 am Auckland-time, three days later than planned.

“The cyclone is still a very severe system near New Zealand. Most of the routes on this leg take you very close to that cyclone for a substantially long period of time,” said Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad on Monday. 

(MORE: Sailors Battle the Elements As They Reach the Midway Point in Race Around the World)

Spanning from Auckland to Itajai, Brazil, the fifth leg has long been considered one of the most famous, and dangerous stretches, of the race. The leg runs across the treacherous Southern Ocean, close to Antarctica, and rounds the Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America as they re-enter the Atlantic Ocean for the first time since November. During this journey, the teams have to stay north of “ice gates” that have been plotted along this journey to protect themselves from icebergs and other floating ice.

The teams are expected to arrive in Brazil in the first week of April.

This is not the first time that the Volvo Ocean Race teams have faced high winds, huge swells and bad weather. They encountered brutal weather conditions in the South China Sea during the fourth leg and also battled wind, waves and relentless conditions during the first leg, and the last 500 miles were especially windy as they neared Cape Town. In addition, just 10 days into the second leg, the racing yacht sailing for Team Vestas Wind ran aground on the St. Brandon reef, located off Mauritius in the Indian Ocean while trying to avoid a tropical depression in dangerous waters.

(MORE: Team Vestas Wind Runs Aground on Remote Indian Ocean Reef in Round-the-World-Race)

This is the 12th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, and it is one the world’s toughest ocean races, held every three years. The race was first launched in 1973 as the Whitbread Round the World Race. This year, the first leg began on October 11, 2014 when the seven teams set sail from Alicante, Spain for Cape Town, South Africa, and the race will conclude in Gothenburg, Sweden on June 27, 2015. The fleet will cover 38,739 nautical miles over the nine month marathon, and will visit 11 ports.

Each leg of the race features non-stop racing, with crew members on deck in alternating four-hour shifts. Points are awarded at the end of each leg: one for first place, two for second and so on, and the race winner will be the team with the lowest number of points overall.

Follow the teams on a regularly updating dashboard at the Volvo Ocean Race website, or with the 3D interactive tracker.