Casting their fate with the wind

The Volvo Ocean Race's six-strong fleet heads out towards Auckland from Sanya, Hainan province for Leg 4 on Sunday with some big calls to make in the latest instalment of a marathon offshore contest that could hardly be more finely poised.

Charles Caudrelier's China Dongfeng Race Team leads by a single point after the stage from Abu Dhabi to Sanya, but knows it could just as easily follow the example of Team Brunei, which could only muster fifth place on the leg to China after winning the previous one.

The Chinese team, which became the first from the world's most populous nation to win a leg in the 41-year-old race last month, still has Frenchman Caudrelier as its skipper, leading an eight-member international crew of two Chinese, five French and one Swede, for the 5,264-nautical mile trip to New Zealand.