It seems like I'm only making it through this game a little at the time, but I feel like I'm learning as I go and I consider that a positive thing. When I left off yesterday I was planning my strategy of getting out of the hole with water. My strategy was to find the entrance that would get me on the other side of the gate as seen here:



The first time I tried this I found the opening, opened the valve to release the water and I swam towards the opening. I swam up and ......... ended up at the exact same place. I get so excited when I get through an obstacle and I quickly hit "quick save". At first I didn't know how I was going to get back in the hole since it was filled with water, but I overcame that and was able to find the correct opening and ended up on the correct side of the gate.

I move around some more, excited that there are no head crabs on my heels. I find a new room to explore:



I walk up to explore and find what looks to be a chute of some sort. I accidentally take a plunge, die, and start back over again. I take another careful peek down:



On top of the ramp is a lever to pull and after trying to pull it, the platform I was standing on started moving down the chute ... so I figure this is my next way out. Now to just figure out how to pull the lever and get back to the platform.

As always, there will be more to come.