Every month, superyacht owners reveal where they are in the world and share their future plans with BOAT. Fiddi Angermeyer speaks about operating 48.4-metre Anastassiades & Tsortanides charter yacht Passion in the strictly regulated Galápagos National Park, from penguin encounters to the unique challenges of equatorial yachting...
FIDDI ANGERMEYER
Yacht: Passion
Length: 48.4m
Year: 1973/1989
Location: the Galápagos Islands
How’s the charter business in the Galápagos?
Well, 2020 was going to be our best year, then the pandemic hit. Since then, the business has changed a bit. We used to operate about 40 weeks a year. For some reason, northern hemisphere summers are not so popular anymore. We are quite full until June, then it slows down for the cooler months of July to October.
Even though we are on the equator, we get our weather from the south. The temperature right now (in mid-October) is between 20 and 22 degrees Celsius.
How regulated are charters in the national park?
We have two fixed week-long itineraries, east and west. We labelled them that because we go to the western or eastern side of Isabela, the biggest island. It’s very strict. We can get itinerary changes from the park, but it costs, obviously.
There has to be a reason for it, but usually that is manageable if someone wants something different. Passion has a licence that permits both land excursions and diving, which is a rare thing. Most boats are either diving or doing land visits.
Do you have a favourite itinerary?
Everybody asks me that. I don’t. On the western one, you will have more volcanoes, more lava, and you will get penguins and flightless cormorants. On the eastern one, you will see albatrosses when they are there.
I do recommend that people who have children do the eastern itinerary because it has a few more beaches, and the western one has cooler water. Even in our warm season it can be cool because of the Cromwell current, which comes in deep from the west and upwells when it hits the islands.
What do you most like to do on the water?
Snorkel! You see sea turtles, marine iguanas underwater feeding, eating algae off the bottom, sea lions blowing bubbles around you. It’s quite unique.
What’s next?
We are currently doing an engine change on Passion. Boats always need work!
First published in the December 2025 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.