Q: No contacts [from encrypted containers] after upgrading to Mavericks

I like to consider myself security concious.  As such, I have kept certain application data in encrypted containers so that should I ever lose physical control of my comptuer, I do not have to worry about anyone prying in to gather said data.  I simply created symbolic links within the appropriate folders within ~/Library, and everything worked like a charm (as long as my containers were mounted).

I am very excited about many features in Mavericks, so I anxiously (backed up my ML system, then) installed 10.9 last night, only to find out that I have no Contacts anymore.  I have traced this down to the OS not reading *any* data from a structure that begins with /Volumes/my\ path/...a requirement when working with encrypted containers. 

At first, I thought Mavericks was just balking at the fact that my encrypted container (built with TrueCrypt) was formatted as FAT32.  Then I tried the following encrypted containers:

     [TrueCrypt] OSX Journaled

     [Disk Utility] OSX Journaled, sparse image

I confirmed that my address book data actually works, because if I delete the symbolic link, and let the Contacts app "re-create" the AddressBook folder in ~/Library/Application Support, then copy my [encrypted] data to the un-linked AddressBook folder, Contacts opens everything up just fine.  Even copying this new data to any of the previously mentioned encrypted containers (version check) causes Contacts to choke (0 contacts...and any contacts created in the "empty" database are not saved). 

I even thought that Mavericks somehow "depended" on icloud keychain (a feature I did not initially set up) to get the Contacts app working properly; however, enabling this feature seemed to do no good either. 

Have I discovered a "feature" that Apple has actually removed (i.e. no access to "external" file containers from Contacts)?  Why would the symbolic links not work if they always had...UNIX is still down there somewhere, right?  I've spent too much time just trying to get my Contacts back.  If I can't keep my data in encrypted containers (even one of Apple's if I have to), then there's not much point in me sticking with Mavericks. 

I hope I'm not screwing something up, either...I just don't understand why upgrades have to be so hard!

I'm open to any suggestions...and thanks in advance for any suggestion