Bert ter Hart stands with his boat, the Seaburban. ter Hart is in the midst of a solo sailing adventure that has kept him isolated from the coronavirus pandemic.

Alone and isolated from his family and friends, Bert ter Hart makes homemade bread. He bemoans a shortage of his favorite snacks. He counts his remaining toilet paper squares, wondering if he will run out.

Coronavirus isn't what ter Hart's worried about, though.

It's the weather.

He's been on a solo sailing quest since late October when he left Victoria, British Columbia - devoid of any in-person human contact on his 40-foot sailboat Seaburban, challenged both by storms and by calm seas that have set him back at least two months from his original planned date to return to civilization.

Some say ter Hart's spot alone in the middle of the ocean makes him the safest human in the world.

He disagrees.

"Although I am certainly safe from the coronavirus, I am most certainly not safe from a host of other problems or issues that I must face every single day. Of course weather is the obvious one. But I could get a toothache, an infection and die, before anyone could get to me. A simple cut could become infected and that could turn into something extremely serious in no time flat. Some solo sailors go far as to remove their appendix so they do not run the risk of appendicitis and death," ter Hart, 62, told weather.com in an email sent via satellite link.

"So I think in only one very narrow context am I the safest person on the planet."

(WATCH: Coyote Roams Near the Golden Gate Bridge Amid Coronavirus Lockdown)

Just a few days ago, ter Hart battled waves up to 30 feet high and howling winds in the Southern Indian Ocean. An unusually strong storm for this time of year whipped the winds up to 81 mph in some parts of the region. ter Hart described the experience of steering by hand for seven hours straight to try and keep the boat under control.

"Facing backwards to watch the waves catch us up, I stepped into the well and with water up to my knees, brought Seaburban's stern to face the wind and whatever swell or wave came our way," ter Hart wrote in a Facebook post.

He also has a blog where he posts updates with the help of his wife and family back home, and fans can follow his journey in real time here, along with weather data from his current location.

It's not just storms that have challenged the accomplished sailor. He's also encountered an unusually high number of calm days, something he didn't count on.

"The weather I have encountered in the South Atlantic and the Indian oceans has been very unusual," ter Hart said in his email. "It seems to be more extreme. For example, I have been becalmed almost 40 days in the six and a half months I have been gone. That is very, very rare. That translates to almost 5,000 nautical miles, and had I not been without wind so often I would be home by now."

A detour due to what he said was a rare subtropical high caused him to lose another 1,300 miles.

"The net result of the above is that I am about 6 to 8 weeks behind schedule," ter Hart said. "And that means that my food and water stores are going to be taxed right to the limit by the time I get home."

ter Hart relies on pilot charts for navigational purposes, which he said are a compilation of data collected over "many, many years."

"The data consists of wind direction and velocity, the number of calms and storms, as well as fog, magnetic deviation limit of icebergs, etc. and other tidbits of interest to mariners. They represent climatological means if you will," ter Hart said. "The weather that I have experienced is vastly different than what is on the pilot chart. You could say then that my experience with the weather has been vastly different than the climatological mean."

Bert ter Hart is seen here in a photo during his current solo sailing adventure, which he started long before the coronavirus pandemic.

When he's not chasing adventure, ter Hart said he develops and sells software and IT services. He added that he's a veteran of the Canadian Airborne Special Service Forces, and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics and physical oceanography.

Part of the reason he took up the challenge of his solo sailing quest was to draw school children, many of whom follow him online as part of their classes, into careers in the ocean and atmospheric sciences. There are three science experiments on board the Seaburban, focusing on surface currents, plastic pollution and blue bottle jellyfish.

ter Hart first heard about the novel coronavirus on the radio when he was near land in the Falkland Islands, shortly before the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. Then, his son sent word of skyrocketing numbers of infections and deaths in countries like Italy.

At that point, ter Hart knew it was serious.

"I did not think that my own isolation was any particular advantage," he said. "At some point I will have to return to land and then I will be like everyone else, except late to the party."

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

The Weather Companys primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

See the article here:

At Sea Since October, Solo Sailor Takes Isolation to the Extreme While Battling Weather and High Seas - The Weather Channel