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
Left this morning from the bell in Gardiners Bay,
Like all the locals here I have 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 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 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.
