Old Saybrook - The town fire department rescued three boaters who became disoriented in the fog shrouding the Connecticut River late Wednesday night.

Just after 11 p.m., the U.S. Coast Guard requested the assistance of the Old Saybrook Fire Department to respond to the mouth of the Connecticut River just off the Old Lyme shore, a fire official said.

Four Old Saybrook firefighters responded and used the recently christened fire boat, the Gordon B. Smith and found two men and a woman from Massachusetts in a 12-foot aluminum rowboat with a small electric battery-powered trolling motor. They had ventured out before the fog rolled in to go fishing and were not equipped with any navigational aids or a marine radio. They had life jackets, a cell phone and a single flare.

The three were brought aboard the fire boat and transported along with their boat to Saybrook Point, where they made arrangements to retrieve their vehicle and trailer that they had left at an Old Lyme boat launch.

Fire officials said the boaters were appreciative, saying the woman in the boat told them that "she thought that they were going to die out there."

The identities of the boaters were not released.