Getting rid of float:left on ui.helper draggable?

Question

Hi,

I have a draggable connected to a sortable:

<ul id='target'> // sortable
  <li></li>
</ul>

<ul id='draggables'>
  <li id='draggable1' style='float:left'></li> // draggable
</ul>

whenever I start dragging draggable1 over the sortable list, it seems its helper always has a float:left style applied to it, even if I override and generate a brand new helper:

var element = $('#draggable1');
element.draggable("option", "helper", function() {
    return $("<div>hi there..?</div>");
});

in other words, the elements in sortable list 'target' behave like the dragged item has a style of float:left. If I remove float:left from draggable1, then it looks fine when hovering the item above.

I must be missing something - I've tried overriding all other stages of the draggable/sortable flow, but trying to get rid of this float:left style doesn't seem to be working. Firebug shows the ui.helper item has no float:left style, but it is still behaving like it, somehow,

Thanks