Harley uses the skills he learnt as a British submariner to save lives on the south coast

The Malua Bay resident has always had a love for the water - being out on a boat, waterskiing, or lurking hundreds of metres beneath the surface.

As a 17 year old, Harley joined the British Navy following in the footsteps of his submariner uncle, specialising in seamanship and sonar.

He would be dispatched on what were known as six week "mystery trips" where the crew were not told the location of the mission, and the control room chart table was covered secretly by a cloth.

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"We used to go up the top end, up near Russia, and sit on the bottom of the ocean and just listen," Harley said.

Other missions included dispatching Special Boat Servicemen - a high level of Royal Marine - in canoes to carry out secret missions on land, retrieving them a day later.

He spent a total of six years working in submarines, travelling all around the oceans of the northern hemisphere in secrecy and darkness, sometimes sneaking around more than 200 metres beneath the surface.

So what is life like living in a submarine on the ocean floor?

"It's just like being in the London tube in the underground," Harley said.

"It's all lights and it's hot."

The self-professed prankster with a "massive sense of humour" loved the mateship that serving together in a confined space created, especially the pranks they were able to pull while together.

"We got up to lots of mischief onboard as a crew but it was all camaraderie," he said.

He recalls just one of many such pranks where he and his comrades used battery acid to burn through the stitching on their superior's military hats so that when they pulled their cap down to salute other officers, it tore and they were embarrassingly left holding the ripped peak of their uniform.

"We all had our leave cancelled that weekend because none of us would fess up to having done it," Harley said.

"It just bred camaraderie."

When he left the navy, Harley moved to Australia.

He worked as a car salesman, then at Arnotts Biscuits - "a crumby job," he said - then in the printing industry in Canberra for 17 years.

He would spend every weekend, and any other available time, waterskiing on the Clyde River at Batemans Bay.

"I know the Clyde like the back of my hand," he said.

He moved around Australia many times and realised at each location his passion was to help out with Coast Guard and Marine Rescue crews.

With the Tin Can Bay Coast Guard in Queensland he performed rescues on Wide Bay Bar - "the most notorious and most dangerous bar in the eastern seaboard," he said.

"It was good learning for me," he said, "with some really, really serious assists."

It was here he realised just how much he loved using his skills and knowledge of being on the water to help people in need.

"I liked being responsible for a crew on a rescue vessel and going out there and assisting people in distress at sea and that's what I've been doing ever since," he said.

He has seen some very unexpected things out at sea, and saved all manner of vessels: jet skis in trouble, sinking boats, fishing vessels, yachts, dinghies where the driver has fallen out and, sadly, he has seen fatalities too.

He remembers one rescue where the Coast Guard was alerted by Queensland Police to a ship which was stuck and couldn't navigate after their electronics failed.

As Harley was towing the stranded boat, he saw the captain of the rescued vessel throwing sealed white pipes off the back of the boat.

When the police started fishing out the packages, they found rifles and ammunition trying to be illegally smuggled into Australia from New Zealand.

Compared to all he has done, Harley said Tuross Head Marine Rescue, which he joined three years ago and where he now serves as deputy unit commander, was "pretty quiet", but with a "really mean little bar".

Even then, you never know what each day will hold, and Harley sometimes has to drop everything to perform an immediate rescue.

"The sea is a real funny thing: perfect one day and absolute nightmare the next," he said.

"All we do at Marine Rescue is save lives at sea."