I have a long list of items within a column. I need to count nonblank cells starting from a certain cell, i.e. C1, all the way down but only up until the next blank cell appears.

Example

C
1 xxx
2 xxx
3 xxx
4 xxx
5
6 xxx
7 xxx
8
9 xxx


The result of doing that sort of counting here, starting in C1, should be 4.

Is there a way to do this?

thanks

PS: Another way of looking at this, I guess, would be to count contiguous cells. Easier?