It does sound like water getting into the system and that probably means a gasket or seal is broken somewhere in the system. Could be a head gasket, could be a number of other seals depending on make and model. Regardless of the cost to find and fix the problem, it will not get any cheaper the longer you run it with this problem especially if you are introducing salt water into the inside of the engine. You should seek fairly immediate help if your running in salt water.