"not make it onto the cliff since its too far away." Are you holding the run button for momentum?
"barely through the water to the item there but then drown". I should add some sort of explanation, the western water area is meant to be accessed once you have a way to breathe underwater(which you get later). The item collected there should be #4 in the Equip sub-menu. I'll be sure to add some type of warning or hint there! Thank you for the feedback 👍