Alone and unfulfilled after extreme weather conditions thwarted his first attempt to swim the English Channel, Campbell Brown returned to Dover this week prepared to have a second go. Yet again the retired AFL premiership player who has spent the past 18 months training for the exercise departed with a dream unrealised. This time there were no cameras to capture the experience. Even Brown's wife, Jess, stayed in Paris while her partner sought to resolve unfinished business.

When Brown set off from Dover three weeks ago, already having raised more than $100,000 for disadvantaged Australian kids through taking on the challenge, he had a support crew of family and friends with him, albeit in the relative comfort of boats. After swimming 9 hours – a channel traversing is typically recognised as a 34-kilometre route but can be much further depending on currents – Brown was halfway to Calais, France. But he had to be pulled from the water after winds of about 50 km/h ruined a day that began in glorious sun and with water so tranquil it seemed too good to be true. And so it was.

While still in Europe holidaying, Brown received word from his coach, seven-time world marathon swimming champion and successful English Channel crosser Shelley Taylor-Smith, that one of the chartered boats compulsory for official crossings of the English Channel could be arranged if he wanted to re-attempt.

Brown had been adamant that one attempt would be enough – bookings for crossings are typically secured a year in advance, boat captains similar - so when another opportunity presented so soon he couldn't resist.

"So I went back down to Dover. Alone this time. I waited for another five nights, but the weather turned out to be even worse than before," Brown said after he returned to Melbourne this week.

In attempt two he didn't even get the all-clear to hit the water.

"Eventually it looked like it was going to clear up over the weekend, but I had to make a call and return to work. Twelve boats went out this morning, the water was absolutely flat and calm, and all 12 [swimmers] got across. So I missed it by less than 48 hours."

The return from the half swim he did do would be enough to put most off. Brown was only told afterwards that in the last three hours and 25 minutes he spent in the water he had travelled virtually nowhere. An almighty storm and force five winds made progress impossible, though he was none the wiser while in the water.

Ahead of him that day was a strong young swimmer from Perth who got to within four kilometres of Calais but had to abandon for the same reason.

Once Brown had been pulled into his captain's boat where his wife, cousin, coach and close friends monitored his every stroke – the story got worse.

Their trip back to Dover took more than two hours and only Brown, acclimatised after almost 10 hours of plugging away against currents, was spared from seasickness. His parents, Mal and Kay, and former Hawthorn teammate Brad Sewell, were among those in his secondary support boat and they suffered the same ills.

"We were just getting smashed on the way back, with water coming over the top of the boats. Everyone was vomiting. And saturated. Pretty much for two hours," Brown said.

Brown says he will decide in coming weeks whether he'll try his luck again this time next year. To get an official Channel swim recorded it is a small swimming season: July to September.

"Physically I was going really strongly still in the swim I did, so it reaffirmed in my head that I could get there," he said.

"I handled the cold. Everything was perfect. Even the swim was perfect until that wind that came out of nowhere. There's definitely some unfinished business, but I don't know if I can commit to a year's preparation again.

"You never know. I don't have to do it next year and rush straight back into it. I could have a spell. I know what I need to do. It's just bloody annoying."