PROVINCETOWN, Mass. (AP) – The Coast Guard rescued a 74-year-old sailor off Cape Cod on Wednesday after he disappeared in the midst of 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 taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for treatment of hypothermia.

Gillings, who has 50 years of sailing experience, told WBZ-TV that he was knocked overboard during the storm, but was wearing a safety harness. “I never knew there was such force,” he said.

He called his rescue “the most fantastic feeling.”

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.