WESTPORT ISLAND — Westport Island volunteer firefighters came to the aid of two women stranded on Harper’s Island on Thursday, after the duo’s canoe capsized and they were stranded on the island in Montsweag Bay.

Westport Island Fire Chief Robert Mooney, who was aboard the boat that rescued the women, said Thursday that one of the women has been taking an annual canoe trip to the island after the first full moon in March since 1962, but this year was aboard a different and unfamiliar vessel.

“Her canoe was stolen last year and the canoe they were using was not familiar,” Mooney said.

When the two arrived on the island sometime around 1:30 p.m., Mooney said, the boat capsized and the women, who Mooney said are in their late 50s or early 60s, had no way to get back to the mainland, which is about a tenth of a mile from the shore.

The women used a cellphone they stored in a plastic bag to call for assistance, Mooney said.

A Coast Guard report issued shortly after the rescue erroneously indicated that the women did not have a phone and that another person had called for help.

“They were prepared,” Mooney said. “They had the right gear on and they had their life jackets on, which was encouraging.”

Mooney said he was joined by firefighters Roger Higgins and Mark Ezzell on the fire department’s 11- foot rigid hull inflatable boat.

Mooney said dispatchers contacted the local fire department after the call came in shortly after noon, finding that waters would have been too shallow for a Coast Guard response.

“They called to see if the boat was available and I told them, ‘ Yes, it is,’” Mooney said. “That’s what we have it for.”

dfishell@timesrecord.com