I finally picked it up again yesterday and remembered why I had put it down (I still haven't finished):

I had to blow the gust jar at two pinwheels in Skyloft connected to windmills to make them rotate, then a pinwheel came off and fell off the world, so I was stuck until I eventually talked to the right person who mentioned that someone's son is working on a robot, so somehow I stumble into the correct house to talk to the guy who tells me his son is in the Skyloft shop, I go to the shop and give him some bafmodad that I had evidently collected along the way (a flower?) that he needed to repair the robot, so I fly to Death Mountain and get the pinwheel (only the robot can carry the pinwheel, you see), fly back to Skyloft to have it reattached so I can rotate the windmill, which activates a mirror pointed at the sky for me to fly to, which contains a landing surrounded by platforms for me to rotate so that I can cross over to a room that teaches me a song on the harp, which I have to bring to a spot in the Fangorn Forest for me to play, which beomes the Silent Realm so then I gotta collect 15 teardrops at no less than 90 seconds apart, otherwise I'll be caught and killed and have to do the whole thing over. I finally collect em all and it gives me the ability to swim underwater.

I'm getting a little tired of the chores and collectathons. Can we keep the Animal Crossing stuff out of the next one please?