Maisu navigator Chadd Paishon, in a dockside news conference at 7:30 a.m., said the decision was strictly a safety one.

"Because of the weather — the way the weather is right now — we decided to delay leaving today," Paishon said as he stood with his canoe's skipper, Shorty Bertelmann, Hokule'a's skipper Bruce Blankenfeld, and Polynesian Voyaging Society president Nainoa Thompson.

Roughly 100 crew members, family members, supporters and media were present for the planned departure.

He said that safety is the most crucial issue for the canoes, and it overrides the inconvenience of not leaving on a schedule.

"We have this long legacy of 30 years. Those 30 years have taught us the decisions that need to be made. Sometimes those decisions are not right for other people, but they are right for us ... We know that the decisions we make don't only affect us on the canoe, but they affect our families and our communities," he said.