Yellow/brown spots all over the boat

[Rich]

Ok, what the heck was that!

This past weekend I came to my boat to find tiny yellowish/brown spots all over the boat. They are about the size of a pencil point or maybe a bit larger (about 1/16 inch to almost 1/8 in diameter).

I wasn't the only boat, many (if not all) had this in my area.

Nothing was cleaning it off. Unfortunately the white parts of my boat are in the process of being polished and then waxed, so there was no wax on the white gel coat yet.

I tried various soaps and cleaners, even the stronger cleaners that I rely on to clean the most stubborn stains didn't even affect it!
I tried acetone, didn't even phase it.

A polishing compound would remove it, but that would be a LOT of work.

Another boater found that some bleach in some water (a bit less than 50/50) would make it disappear. So now I don't know if I removed it, or just made it white so now it's no longer visible.

Does anyone know, was this pollen that broke down and stained the boat like an old dried leaf that is left on the boat to decompose and stain the gel coat or was it some type of acid rain?

Anyone else see or experience this stuff?

Do you know of anything less aggressive than bleach to clean this without having to resort to a full buff job (so I don't have to rebuff the parts of the boat which I have already done?