We made it; we are now in the water and heading toward Lake Worth, looking for a good weather window to cross the Gulf Stream. Before we launched we were having the outboard motor serviced, it was hard to start at times and needed attention, turns out that the compression was low and the spark was weak. We decided that rather than put a bunch of money into a 20 plus year old motor we would purchase a new one, if this one lasts for 20 years it will probably be owned by someone else by then.
On our way to Lake Worth on the ICW, the diesel motor was running hot, especially with higher rpm's, making it necessary to stop a few times to let things cool down. We ended up putting a new impeller in the water pump; it was put in new last year and should have been o.k. but who can tell. It wasn't the same quality of what we have been using in the past, it looked fine but the rubber was much softer and not as thick. Maybe at higher rpm's it wasn't pumping as much water through as it should have, time will tell