did you put cloth OVER tape? That'll be messy no matter how good you are at glassing,,don't worry about little bubbles near the tape.
regarding all the little messy things,,it's a messy operation and you'll do a much, much better on the exterior,,also the process of putting on fill coats and sanding it smooth will look a hundred times better when varnished than what you are looking at on the interior. Sorry for not getting back to you from your e-mail,,by the time I thought out an answer a few days went by and you sounded like you were about to do something that day.
Take a breather every once in awhile,,it's easy to focus too much on each detail,,the exterior will be much, much easier. You'll get better at removing stray threads under the glass or NOT pulling on stray ones when the epoxy isn't cured,,leave it and scrape it off later. Regarding cutting glass next to other areas like the deck to hull wrap over use blue masking tape on the hull to lay the wetout cloth onto ,,,then when it cures you'll cut the cloth with a razor.