A private message was sent to the poster with no response back.
The deck portion of the boat includes the aft cabin ceiling. There is a rear deck panel that was made to accommodate a tiller or the other panel for wheel steering. The wheel panel is beefed up structurally to support the wheel from swaying. The panel is screwed down to the deck. The area below the panel is open to the transom to allow for use as a gas locker, passage of steering cables and storage. This construction does not allow water, fumes, critters etc inside the cabin.
Without taking the wheel panel off to replace steering cables, I would use a small tube to route the 3300 series cables thru the steering quadrant thru the small hole at the base of the quadrant. You would need to remove the small nuts and rubber.covers to allow passage of the cables thru the small tube. Then I would take a long hook or crow bar to turn the cable towards the stern accessed from the stern seat that flips up.
I believe what happened an inspection port was cut in the deck panel by the previous owner below in order to route new cables thru the steering quadrant without coming here for advice.
I asked the owner in a private message for a picture to identify the inspection port or a photo. We can tell if the inspection port has an o ring or not. If not , simply take the inspection port off, clean and recaulk . I would suggest using a pure silicone for example GE used for sealing exterior windows and doors or bathroom doors.
@StuckinReverse Please advise