The Spirit of Bermuda is to host a two-day voyage for those embarking on their own inner journey — that of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.

Jim Roi, a New York philosopher and healer specialising in the treatment of “spiritual disease”, will run the charter along with addictions counsellor at Pathways Bermuda Roger Trott.

Titled Charlotte’s Sail, it is held in memory of Charlotte Watlington, a Bermudian woman who committed suicide in 2013 after battling with addiction and depression.

The open water sail encourages participants to break the silence surrounding addiction “by trusting and practising nature-based learning and development and finding connections with people, places and things that matter”.

A “Raise your Spirits” sail was initiated several years ago by Gordon Johnson who has fought his own battles with addiction and it has now been rebranded as Charlotte’s Sail.

He told The Royal Gazette: “This is an opportunity to use the Spirit of Bermuda as a beautiful container to develop safety and security around conversations of recovery. The practices of sailing are always about team work and we believe that recovery is a “we” event.

“Rather than just talk about addiction and the challenges that so many of us are familiar with, we want to talk about the gift of recovery and we feel that this is an invitation for people to create a new path.

“Many of us live with the realities of addiction — the fear, the self-loathing, the shame, the embarrassment and we want to change that language to one of being connected. This disease often leaves us devastated, isolated and feeling alone. What Jim brings, through the threefold practice of body, mind and spirit, is a spiritual path to embrace recovery.”

Since the early eighties, Mr Roi has been a visible figure in the New York city transformation and recovery community.

A former alcoholic, he has used his background of philosophy and transformation to share what he describes as an enriched version of the “twelve-step approach” found among groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and AlAnon.

He said: “My passion is philosophy which inquires into the spirit and the deepest nature of human beings. The whole recovery process for me became an immense adventure. I had a lot of money problems and they closed in on me and I had to use the 12-step model to see that this was a spiritual disease. You begin seeing there is a huge watershed for transformation. That is what wakes me up in the morning.

“The sail is an immense event — we are here together, we are on the ocean, we are sharing.

“Amazing things happen — people just open up and it becomes quite magical. That itself is a transformation. Everybody gets a job to do, they work as part of a crew and take on tasks themselves. There is just an intimacy.”

The sail is open to anyone ready to recover and there will be no alcohol or drugs permitted aboard.

Mr Johnson added: “There is a powerful self-selection that needs to go on — if you are not ready then it can act as an incentive to get ready for next year. That is our goal — we want to be a beacon of opportunity.”

Executive director for Pathways Bermuda Gita Blakeney-Saltus said: “We have always been connected to Charlotte and when we knew about the sail last year we felt connected to it. Gordon invited us to participate. We feel very connected in the sail and we were so glad that we had the opportunity to have Roger participate. It will be a very good fit for the whole initiative.

“There is a spiritual alignment which gets me very excited because I believe that Pathways right now is in a space that is very spiritual. This is an exciting time in our evolution. It is going to be a wonderful collaboration of hearts and minds and spirits.”

Charlotte’s Sail is to take place on November 7 and 8. There is a suggested fee of $275 per person but no one will be turned away on financial grounds. Mr Roi will also be giving a presentation this Wednesday from 6pm to 9pm at Christ Church, Warwick which is open to all who are affected by addiction including family members. Anyone interested in attending either event should call: 505-3820 or e-mail: gordon.robert.johnson@gmail.com. Mr Roi will also be holding a workshop for clinical practitioners at Pathways Bermuda.