Movie marine coordinator steers clear of troubled waters

During his 14 years as a bomb disposal diver in the British Royal Navy, 37-year-old Daren Bailey routinely placed himself in dangerous situations involving live explosives. "There's still a big problem with Second World War mines around the coast of England," he says. "A lot of German mines keep coming up, so we have to deal with that quite a lot."

Although Bailey found the work exciting when he was in his 20s, in time his feeling of invincibility began to wear thin. When a friend of his brother's informed him that Hollywood needed people with boating and diving expertise, he left the military and went straight to the set of "Captain Corelli's Mandolin." Since then, Bailey has lent his sea legs to films including "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," "Syriana," "Stardust," "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and "The Golden Compass." Recently, he worked as the marine coordinator on "Rambo," due in theaters Friday. In this latest installment, Sylvester Stallone reprises his famous role as John Rambo, who is recruited by missionaries working in Burma to protect them against pirates -- who hardly limit their adventures to the Caribbean these days.

Drowning in paperwork: Bailey doesn't have a desk job, but he has to fill out his fair share of forms. "With all the health and safety issues, it takes at least two weeks just to insure the boats and do all the risk assessments," he says. "But once you've got that out of the way, then you can just look forward to getting out on the water and being with the guys and doing all of the sailing stuff."

Ships, ahoy!: For "Rambo," Bailey was in charge of what amounted to a small navy. "It was roughly about 25 boats in the water at one time," he says. "We had four Burmese patrol boats. So we're advising on how they used to fire weapons and how they'd turn the boat around a corner. And then there's the pirate boats and Rambo's longboats -- one for blowing up, one [where we] did all the dialogue onboard the boat. And then we had ferry boats that came out onto the set and catering boats, safety boats, location boats, special effects boats."