Well I'm on the Downeaster "Alexa"

And I'm cruising through Block Island Sound

I have chartered a course to the Vineyard

But tonight I am Nantucket bound



We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday

And left this morning from the bell in Gardner's Bay

Like all the locals here I've had to sell my home

Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone



So I could own my Downeaster "Alexa"

And I go where the ocean is deep

There are giants out there in the canyons

And a good captain can't fall asleep



I've got bills to pay and children who need clothes

I know there's fish out there but where God only knows

They say these waters aren't what they used to be

But I've got people back on land who count on me



So if you see my Downeaster "Alexa"

And if you work with the rod and the reel

Tell my wife I am trolling Atlantis

And I still have my hands on the wheel



Now I drive my Downeaster "Alexa"

More and more miles from shore every year

Since they told me I can't sell no stripers

And there's no luck in swordfishing here



I was a bayman like my father was before

Can't make a living as a bayman anymore

There ain't much future for a man who works the sea

But there ain't no island left for islanders like me