PROVINCETOWN, Mass. – The Coast Guard rescued a 74-year-old sailor off Cape Cod on Wednesday after he disappeared amid a powerful nor’easter.

Vincent Gillings, an American with extensive sailing experience, left Liverpool, Nova Scotia, on Friday in his 33-foot sailboat, the Sara Gamp, bound for Gloucester.

After hearing Sunday from his worried girlfriend, U.S. and Canadian authorities launched an air and water search of a 230-mile swath stretching from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, to Gloucester.

The surface search was suspended because conditions became too dangerous during Tuesday’s storm, which pounded the New England coast with high winds and 20-foot surf. But the air search continued, and a Coast Guard jet crew spotted Gillings’ boat around 8 a.m. Wednesday about 22 miles northeast of Provincetown.

A helicopter was dispatched and lowered a rescue swimmer onto the boat, Coast Guard spokesman Scott Carr said. Gillings was in stable condition, but suffering from hypothermia. He was flown to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The Coast Guard said the boat was equipped with flares, life jackets, a life raft and a VHF radio. The boat’s home port is in Virginia.