I know this topic has been raised before, but the threads were all locked.
I have CotN with the new patch, UK version.
I have had to restart the Bubastis scenario after reaching prestige of 116, because local barges stuck on 'Deciding what to do' prevented anything from being ported across the Nile. They even blocked trade barges from moving. I had about six loaded with grain and paper, which would not leave. They were all piled criss-cross fashion on top of the two stuck local barges. At one point, I had labor crews pulling sledges underwater, and once they left it floating on the surface of the Nile. Nothing was ever delivered, however.
On the restart, I was careful to watch the barges as I built the barge landings, one by one. Nevertheless, I ended up with one local barge 'Floating', and two 'Deciding what to do'.
I built two new Barge landings, and destroyed the two landings near the stuck local barges. That did not affect them.
I then tried destroying the landing next to the barge that was 'Floating'. It sensibly relocated to one of the two empty landings.
I then built other landings to handle trade barges, and completed the mission in spite of the stuck local barges. No more local barges were built after the two got stuck, even though I had a shipyard and plenty of cedar. The shipyard claimed to be full up.

Howdy, Sandra!
A game save would help & we can't upload them at HeavenGames easily.
Perhaps at the Tilted Mill forums?
http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/
Anyway, my guess is that it might be due to shipwrights & landings placed too close together & deleting things while a process is in progress.
A barge in 'deciding what to do' is usually removed from the game (but still exists) & becomes useless. 'Floating' is the normal display. Unfortunately, we cannot delete barges.
The shipwright will only make so many barges & this is a function of how many landings you have. I think 5 is about the max barges we can have & that many require a TON of landings.

In the first run through Bubastis I agree that the barge landings were too close together. I kept getting messages that I needed more landings, and I had to put them close together to fit them all in. The in-game help suggested one per every three trade routes. The tutorial, I thought, suggested one per trade route. I think I was at about the latter figure in the first run. I probably did delete things in progress in the first run because everything was already at a standstill. I had a few years worth of support stuck on trade barges, as well as all my laborers stuck in barge landing buildings. I was trying to salvage an almost-win, but it wasn't possible.
In the second run I tried to put the landings far enough apart, but I guess I failed. I did not delete anything in the second run until it was obvious that the two barges were not going anywhere. I only had four landings in the second run, despite repeated warnings that I was going to lose deliveries. I never did. In fact, most of the barges tried to use the same landing, leaving the other three empty. It seems they target the landing closest to their dedicated storage area. Even a matter of two squares is enough to cause them to prefer a crowded landing to an empty one.
I only had one shipyard, both times. In both cases it was a bit removed from the landings.
I have a save of the latter run. I overwrote the former. It, and all my autosaves leading up to it, were just in increasingly spoiled condition at the blocked location and I was had no wish to retain a copy after having tried for several hours to recover from that.
I will drop over to the Tilted Mills forum and see if they are interested in the problem.
Thanks for the response.