Nice, I don't know what Eugenia means with harsh look but I like the look of the video. Maybe the color balance is slightly fooled by the presumably reddish environment and overcorrecting a bit, but that I would solve with the right color setting, not with polarizer etc. The default contrast of the HV20 also is a bit high, also that can be corrected in the camera or in post.
The problem with the water waves is caused by the high bitrate required to store the movements of all these ripples. I think you can't do anything about it in Vimeo, as you have no control over vimeos bitrate. Variable bitrate or just high bitrate seems easiest way out for the Quicktime version.
I think Eugenia's suggestion will even worsen the problems: the clearer the shapes the harder you press the compressor. For lower bitrates you would have to *blur* the images. But please don't do that, I don't like blurred video ...