The Downeaster 'Alexa'

The Downeaster 'Alexa' - Heaven is Shining

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