[ubernostrum]

13 miles off the coast of SF. What can possibly go wrong?

13mi offshore? What can go wrong is you're still in US territorial waters; they end ~4,200 feet further out, because territorial waters are defined in nautical miles.

But even if you amend to "13 nautical miles off the coast", you run into "Hi, you're still in our exclusive economic zone." To get out of that and truly be free of both territorial and economic-exploitation claims of existing states, you need to be more than 200nm from any coast. Which is ~230mi and a bit more of a hassle to commute to, supply, etc., not to mention you'd need to build a stable anchorage for them and all the natural ones are, well, within the territorial waters or exclusive economic zones of existing states.

[colanderman]

I believe it was a reference to Neil Stephenson's novel "Snow Crash".