Verbosity

Word count is always in the back of my mind, although I've resolved to let the story run where it will and tell it as best I can, word count be damned. But.......here is an example of why I'm at 158,000 words so far:

The good ship Progress dropped anchor at its destination at last and 2,400 words later Silas set foot on the the shore of San Francisco. TwentyFourHundredWords?

Why couldn't have been something like "The ship dropped anchor in the Bay and by first light the next morning I was standing on the golden shore of California." 23 words instead of 2,400.

The answer, of course, is that there were things that had to happen and things that Silas had to do before reaching shore, all of which had to be expressed in my riveting prose, but I worry about verbosity. My wife, SFF, says it adds richness. (Very supportive of her as she hasn't read this part yet).

Richness? Wordiness? Time will tell, but its all subject to edit when the time comes.