Rudder damage

At sea and in 24 kts wind our rudder(s) went sour. Of course in between two islands 3meter waves,ferry in the area, and so on.
What went wrong? The outer cable of our IMO morse control forced itself out of the nut that secures it into a bracket near the helm. The only motion of the rudders was done by the inner cable and therefore not powerful at all.
Fortunately we have twin diesels an the lack of rudders was not a big problem. We entered the nearest port and stayed there for a couple of days to fix it.

For those who are interested here how that went.
The system that holds the outer cable in place is quite funny. There is a hollow rod with an concentric end. At that end the nut is screwed on that also has an concentric bore. Fitting those over the outer cable metal pressed-on iron (the outer-cable itself is sort of superplastic) end, it secures it in place. For some reason the outer morse cable worked its way out of the nut and damaged the inner rim of the nut. Therefore there was no material (aluminum) left to withstand the enormous pressure of the rudders.
First I inserted a stainless steel clip to force the cable inside the rod to one side then when I tighten the nut again the remaining material of the rim inside the nut held the outer cable in check enough to withstand the wildest of left-right stearing .