Got her unstuck using generous amounts of PB blaster and a heat gun and a mallet. Once I got the cable in the kicker mobile, I wrapped the bent section of the stainless rod protruding from the main engine section of the tie bracket in duct tape , then using an extended sparkplug wrench (approx 20cm long) as a hollow lever, managed to straighten it out (more or less)---buttoned all the parts back up and tie bracket works again!
Way better outcome then I envisioned yesterday....replacing the entire system
The big surprise: I managed to do the fix while the boat was in the water. I deserve a cigar for not dropping tools or any of those expensive stainless fittings into the drink