I had the pleasure of spending last week in Fort Lauderdale at the International Boat Show. I have spent a lot of time at boat shows, but this was my first time working the Fort Lauderdale show. I was invited by Everglades Boats to represent Marine Dynamics as their Gulf Coast dealer.

Although it ended up being a beautiful if breezy weekend, we had to endure the effects of Hurricane Sandy while we were there. The show started last Thursday, and Fort Lauderdale faced the full effect of the storm that day. I was working on the outside docks, and as the storm bands blew through, we definitely had some tropical storm-force winds. My fellow representatives from around the country and I had to take shelter inside of the boats as conditions warranted. It was pretty exciting at times. Surprisingly, we had a lot of show visitors during the storm. It seemed like when the rain let up they left the shelter of the exhibition tents and came out to look at the boats. By Friday, we only had to deal with some rain and wind. For the weekend, the sun came out and so did the people — lots of people.