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 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 could 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 Ive 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