email class help with googleapp email service

[eluser]joeizang[/eluser]
<?php
$config = array(
'protocol' => 'smtp',
'smtp_host' => 'ssl://smtp.googlemail.com',
'smtp_port' => 587,
'smtp_user' => '[email protected]',
'smtp_password' => 'emailadmin'
);
$this->load->library('email',$config);
$this->email->set_newline("\r\n");
//send emails
$this->email->from($this->input->post('emailaddress'),$this->input->post('name')); $this->email->to('[email protected]');
$this->email->cc('[email protected]');
$this->email->subject('Suggestions');
$this->email->message($this->input->post('emailbody'));
if($this->email->send()){ echo "Your Message was sent and noted...";}
?>

This is my email code snippet. When I send I get the following error which is funny:
<h4>A PHP Error was encountered</h4>

<p>Severity: Warning</p>
<p>Message: fsockopen() [<a href='function.fsockopen'>function.fsockopen</a>]: SSL operation failed with code 1. OpenSSL Error messages:
error:140770FC:SSL routines:SSL23_GET_SERVER_HELLO:unknown protocol</p>
<p>Filename: libraries/Email.php</p>
<p>Line Number: 1652</p>

This is on a development server using XAMPP with php_openssl.dll enabled in the ini file.
any clues?