Backwalk and fall into the water then pull yourself up, onto the platform. Hold L, sidehop, then immediately backflip. You should have landed on the wooden boat without triggering the text. Climb to the bow of the boat, then roll/jump to grab the rock face.
Aligning the "flat" side of the R in Return with the meeting point of the two rock faces will help assure that you grab the ledge.
Unlike the English version of the Wind Waker, in the Japanese version, the area of the trigger for the Tetra text is much smaller and can be sidehopped over.
Note: Later in the game, you will encounter a dead end if you have preformed this trick, since you will lose your sword. Because of this, this trick should only be used in an individual level speedrun of Forsaken Fortress or a smaller race to Din's Pearl as a timesaver.
Simply roll at an angle off of the walkway to the window and preform a sidejump directly after landing to prevent a bump into the wall. From here, you can navigate your way to the searchlight. Also, as a quick way to dispose of the bokoblin, you can lure him towards the ledge and use a quickspin to knock him off of it.
It is important to note that it is completely unnecessary to disable the second and third searchlights in the process of getting to the hero's sword. These are referred to as the "second" and "third" searchlights based on the assumption that you used the above trick to disable the "first" searchlight.
The barrels in Forsaken Fortress are used to sneak past the moblin guards which you find in some of the rooms. While they are on, they activates a mild invisibility so you are able to get closer to the guards without them noticing you. The invisibility will, nonetheless, stay on you for some time even when the barrel has been removed, which lets you run past them faster.
In the second room you enter you have to get yourself past two moblins. As soon as the cutscene is over, roll once over to the first barrel and pick it up. Quickly remove it and put it down again to run past the two moblins. If the second moblin turns towards you right before you enter the stairs, simply get behind the wall and he won't notice you.
After you walked out of the door of the room with the two moblins, you run up a bunch of stairs and face the last guard. If you get up quick enough you are often able to get past him with the same barrel glitch as in the room before. But this time you have to walk a little with the barrel first. Pickup the barrel, walk until you are a couple of steps beside the stairs, then take it off and run. Try to cut the corner as close and as fast as possible. If the guard was in the right position, he won't notice you. You can learn this and use it in the majority of your runs.
Instead of have to use a barrel to cloak yourself from the Moblin, before the two sidle ledges, and then slowly make your way past him, you can simply roll past him by hugging the wall. This is much harder than it looks.
Instead of simply holding the control stick in the direction you wish to sidle, push the control stick lightly and rapidly. This will allow to cross the distance a bit faster.
When sailing to Forsaken Fortress, sail to the right side of the fortress (opposite from the wall you would normally have to bomb) and locate a small rock in the water. Get out of the King of Red Lions, and swim along side the rock until you pull yourself up onto it. Move to the rock's ridge and pull out the wind waker to wind waker dive. From here, swim under and into the fortress before you pop back up. From here you can swim underneath the Phantom Ganon trigger to start the battle and be teleported to it, out of the water. This not only skips blowing up the wall, but also the cutscene with the KoRL that would normally play as you enter.
Pull out the wind waker, and then backwalk until Link grabs the ledge. Slide over until the rock face is above you and you cannot move right any longer. Press forward on the control stick, then quickly the button the wind waker is on to wind waker dive. From here swim over behind the large wooden door.
After getting to the pictured searchlight, call Tingle and make sure that the wind is blowing southeast. Align yourself with the appropriate angle and zombie hover. After starting the hover equip a red ting to B on the Tingle Tuner. Once you have passed through the wall above the door to the Helmaroc King battle, press B on the Tingle Tuner. Right before Link is given the ting, tap the deku leaf button and leaf into the loading zone.
After you equipped the Skull Hammer, walk up the first two stairs. Stand on the wall facing the ladder on the other side of the area and use your leaf to glide over and grab it.
Once at the top of the spiraling walkway, sidehop and use the deku leaf to grab the platform behind the Helmaroc King. Align yourself properly, and zombie hover towards Ganondorf's look-out. Hover to the loading zone behind the door and proceed. Note: This trick is necessary if skipping the skull hammer. Otherwise it doesn't save any time.
Because of the timing necessary to preform this trick, it is considered TAS-Only. More info to come.
After the third time you have hit Helmaroc King with the Skull Hammer, lure him into the corner near the spikes. After he pecks at you, and gets his beak stuck in the ground, hit him once more with the skull hammer. This will trigger his 'unmasking' cutscene, which automatically warps you to his head. This clips you past the spikes allowing you to skip his second phase.