Cruisin' Country, New Caledonia cruise: Australia's biggest music festival at sea

"Hosiery and homewares! Appliances and apparel!" Tania Kernaghan has appointed herself lift operator, adding laughs to our late-night ride home in the cruise ship's glass-walled elevator. The raven-haired artist, part of a country-music dynasty, is fresh from leading a conga line in and around the atrium as beloved super-group the Wheel play what they say is their last gig until they don't know when. The party's hardly over for the night – the Schooner Bar will be rocking until the wee hours – but I'm with Kernaghan. It's time to hit the sack.

It's been an exhausting week aboard Radiance of the Seas. The 2500-passenger Royal Caribbean ship is not its normal self. It's under charter, hosting Cruisin' Country – an annual country-music knees-up billed as Australia's biggest music festival at sea. The artist line-up equals anything you'd see at the Tamworth Country Music Festival – think John Williamson, Troy Cassar-Daley, Sara Storer, Graeme Connors, Anne Kirkpatrick, Bill Chambers and Gina Jeffreys – along with a thematic focus on old-timers such as Chad Morgan. Although no one gives a flying hayseed about the destination, the itinerary includes two pit stops in New Caledonia – Noumea and Isle of Pines.

Even though I was raised on a diet of Dolly and Kenny and call myself a country music fan, I'm expecting to eye-roll at least once or twice during this unusual week at sea. Instead of rolling my eyes, though, I'm dabbing at them most days because I'd lost track of what country music's all about. It's about real life, real feelings and real connection. Some songs are fun, others are fictional and then there are those inspired by the artists' own highs and lows, which they disarmingly share from the stage.

Gina Jeffreys has drawn upon her own terrible low – a miscarriage suffered on her 39th birthday. When she chats to me about Milestones, the song that will be released this year when she steps back into the spotlight after years spent nurturing her family, she becomes visibly upset. "A lady came up to me yesterday who was just in full tears and said, 'Those are the words I've been wanting to say'," Jeffreys says. "There have been lots of tears on the ship because of that song. I think that's the strength of country music – it's the words and that we can share the stories and touch people's hearts."

The strength of this particular cruise is it allows fans to share such intimate moments with the artists. You might also spot James Blundell splashing around in the Isle of Pines' aqua waters or exchange pleasantries in the corridors with the zany Hillbilly Goats or the cruise's vibrant opening act, Amber Lawrence. When the lime-suited veteran artist Chad Morgan takes a breather during his set, he's besieged by fans wanting a photo. The cruise also includes a meet and greet/autograph session. While I'm chatting to Jeffreys' husband Rod McCormack (a member of the Wheel and a respected producer from the NSW Central Coast, known as Hillbilly Heaven), a woman approaches to ask if he'd consider a house concert at her place. Although fans are occasionally too personal – new mum Lawrence recounts fielding questions about her baby's birth and breastfeeding – it doesn't stop artists clamouring to be on the bill.

That wasn't always the case, says Artist Network Australia's Marius Els. The entertainment manager joined forces with South Australian music-cruise pioneer Mick Manov in 2010 to program a rock cruise. The following year, the Choose Your Cruise joint CEOs filled rock and country cruises, and the juggernaut has since rolled on to sell out an annual portfolio of music-themed cruises in Australia and Britain.

Last October, Els fulfilled one of his dreams when Foreigner headlined the Australian rock cruise. At the same time, he was basking in the knowledge that 2019's Rock the Boat cruise, featuring Suzi Quatro, the Angels and John Paul Young, had sold out a year in advance – for once beating their "safest bet", the Bravo performing arts cruises.