G      D          Em
Well I'm on the Downeaster "Alexa"
        G                D            Em
And I'm cruising through Block Island Sound
       C         G             Am
I have charted a course to the Vineyard
    G            D         Em
But tonight I am Nantucket bound

C          D              G       C
We took on diesel back in Montauk yesterday
C             D                G                  D
And left this morning from the bell in Gardiner's Bay
C            D                G              C
Like all the locals here I've had to sell my home
C            D                 G              D
Too proud to leave I worked my fingers to the bone

           G      D          Em
So I could own my Downeaster "Alexa"
      G            D        Em 
And I go where the ocean is deep
          C          G            Am
There are giants out there in the canyons
      G            D          Em    
And a good captain can't fall asleep

C        D                G                 C
I've got bills to pay and children who need clothes
C              D              G                  D
I know there's fish out there but where God only knows
C              D             G                 C
They say these waters aren't what they used to be
C            D              G                 D
But I've got people back on land who count on me

          G      D          Em
So if you see my Downeaster "Alexa"
           G             D           Em
And if you work with the rod and the reel
        C         G        Am
Tell my wife I am trolling Atlantis
      G             D            Em
And I still have my hands on the wheel

      G        D          Em
Now I drive my Downeaster "Alexa"
         G               D           Em
More and more miles from shore every year
           C         G             Am
Since they tell me I can't sell no stripers
            G          D            Em
And there's no luck in swordfishing here.

C       D              G          C
I was a bayman like my father was before
C            D          G       D
Can't make a living as a bayman anymore
C                D            G                 C
There ain't much future for a man who works the sea
C                  D               G              D
But there ain't no island left for islanders like me