Well I'm on the Downeaster Alexa
And I'm cruising through Block Island Sound
I have charted 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 Gardiner'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 tell 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