Ernie-
I concur re pump cavitation. Not quite the same critical situation, but I once had the same type of occurrence with the auxiliary engine on my sailboat with a slug of air trapped between the primary fuel filter/lift pump (analogous to the airplane aux pump) and the engine-driven fuel pump. Bleeding the system a couple of times cured it.
That said, I'd fly the airplane locally an hour or so before taking off for the islands.
Ahab
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