I always check over the back to make sure water is coming out the exhaust, and there was some - seemed like not as much as last year? But the engine temp was locked on 194 degrees as always. So I motored from Toronto to Youngstown (New York), from there to Cobourg, then on to Kingston, and down the St. Lawrence. At the first bascule bridge on the St. Lawrence, I throttled up a bit because they seemed to be waiting for me - and the engine began to heat up, soon the overtemp alarm went off. Throttled back down, engine cooled down again. It had never done that before so when time allowed I started checking: strainer clear, belts good, seacock - CLOSED! Obviously not quite all the way, we had run 40 hours and about 260 miles this way.

The seacock is hard to see and a bit stiff to turn, I had turned it off and on a few times in working on the boat before we left, and clearly not turned it back on (nor turned it all the way off, through the handle appeared to be at 90 deg). Enough water got through to cool the engine running at 2000 rpm, but not much more. When I opened it fully, noticeably more water came through the exhaust and the engine temp stayed on 194 degrees even at full throttle.

By the way, I recommend the blue Globe impellers, they seem to last a very long time (10+ years in my last boat) and are claimed to be able to run dry for 15 minutes without damage. Got a couple for the new boat, haven't put one in yet but I will in the spring.