http://www.unix.com/man-page/FreeBSD/5/rc.conf/

Quote:The purpose of rc.conf is not to run commands or perform system startup actions directly. Instead, it is included by the various generic startup scripts in /etc which conditionalize their internal actions according to the settings found there.

Perhaps you should mount the encrypted drive using fstab. I don't know anything about geli.
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/hand...pting.html
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859...mount.html

When in doubt, consult the FreeBSD Handbook.
So far it's never failed to provide answers to my questions.

Good luck!