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 fromhe 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