Wet Sanding Troubles

were you ever worried about mixing water and electricity together?

I did an 88 years ago. It whitened the white too. Pull your inside teak or bow stickers and you’ll see the original white.

I used cheap harbor frieght palm sanders and a garden hose on trickle. Took about 4 Saturday’s to go from the low grits to 2000. Then a high speed polish.

Saturday I started a project of removing all the pinstripes and transom decals to replace and doing a full compound/polish on my 2001 for light scratches and to bring out the best in the gel coat since its probably never been done. I had some light scratches in the gel coat and a shadow on the transom from a worn off decal so I pressed my luck and did some wet sanding with 600/800/1000, compound with high speed buffer and polish in an attempt to correct. Now I have 2 issues:

1. The overall area I worked on looks amazing and clearly the gloss is much better...but I still have some light scratches that came from my wet sanding attempt and wondering if I should repeat the process and go all the way back to 800 or 1000 or... I've ordered some 1200/1500/2000 grit that I think may smooth these finite scratches out better??? Thoughts on what direction to take and/or how to make this an easier process??

2. I thought the color of my gel coat was more OEM off-white but once I did the above,..it seems like the wet sanding has brought out a brighter shade of white and now I'm facing having to double my work load and do the whole boat. Did they make an off-white gel coat in 1989 or have I been staring at it too long and its beginning to look brighter??